The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has awarded new scholarships to 4,279 students of various universities and colleges in the country.
This time, more scholarships were awarded to applicants studying in local universities and colleges, a major shift from previous years when GETFund scholarships were awarded in favour of Ghanaian students studying abroad.
The number of successful applicants this year is 63 per cent higher than the 2,704 recipients for last year.
Last Tuesday, the fund paid GH¢25.3 million of the
annual fees on behalf of the awardees enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programmes of various universities.
Those pursuing diploma or degree programmes are 2,951, with 1,328 beneficiaries in Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programmes in both private and public universities and colleges, all in the country.
The Administrator of GETFund, Dr Richard Ampofo Boadu, who disclosed these to the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview, added that 1,963, representing 46 per cent of awardees, were studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related programmes, while 2,316, representing 54 per cent, were pursuing the humanities.
Applicants
Dr Boadu explained that GETFund had migrated its scholarship application process online to replace the physical processes.
“Our full online system introduced to replace the manual one is our effort towards the digitisation agenda of the government,” he explained.
The GETFund Administrator further added that 22,000 applicants submitted their applications when GETFund advertised in December last year, inviting prospective applicants to apply the local scholarships via its online portal.
He said the overwhelming show of interest in the scholarships prompted the Board of Trustees of the Fund to increase the available slots, leading to the high number of recipients.
Dr Boadu said, however, that as of last Tuesday, about 300 successful applicants had not accepted the scholarship offers sent to their emails, in spite of efforts to contact them.
“Since they have not accepted the offer yet, the Fund is unable to process their documentation for further actions,” he explained.
The GETFund Administrator explained that those applicants still had the opportunity to accept the offer for processing.
“Indeed, by the time we began processing for the payment, 800 of the applicants had not accepted and we had to call them via the mobile phone numbers they provided and so far, 500 had responded and accepted, leaving the 300,” Dr Boadu explained.
On whether there will come a time it will be considered that those applicants are no longer interested, Dr Boadu explained that the board would have to take that decision.
Conditions
Giving more details, the GETFund Administrator explained that for those pursuing first degrees, the continuous payment of their fees would depend on “satisfactory academic performance”.
He said the beneficiaries needed to submit their transcripts at the beginning of every academic year, together with their annual tuition fees, to enable the Fund to continue paying their fees.
“You have to show evidence of your continuous education at the university by showing us proof of your transcript of the previous year and your new fees because, normally, the universities are often increasing their fees and if they do not submit this, we will not pay,” Dr Boadu explained.
The GETFund Administrator added that the fee was not payable to the beneficiary account, but was paid directly to the institution where the beneficiary applied from.
“GETFund reserves the right to withdraw your scholarship in the event that you are a beneficiary of other scholarship scheme(s) or based on misconduct; unsatisfactory academic performance and deferment of programme without prior written approval from the Administrator of GETFund,” a communication signed by Dr Boadu to the beneficiary students and sighted by the Daily Graphic stated.
Major challenge
Many students uploaded wrong documents at wrong destinations and this is a major source of worry for the fund.
“For instance, a first degree applicant uploading the documents on a master’s degree portal. In such cases, it is automatic disqualification and it does not matter even if the candidate scored 8As,” Dr Boadu clarified.
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