One day before the deadline for already enrolled and prospective Barbadian students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) to apply for tuition bursaries from the Ministry of Education, uncertainty still surrounds the initiative.
In fact, up to 4 p.m. yesterday top officials of UWI, the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Finance were still meeting in the Minister’s Conference Room at the Elsie Payne Complex on Constitution Road to arrive at a position that would prevent the roll at Cave Hill from falling below a sustainable number.
And while they were meeting, sources said, no one on the campus could provide any of the enquiring students, prospective students or their anxious parents with any information on the value of the bursaries, who would determine the recipients and what criteria would be used.
However, a senior officer of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs revealed that they had already cautioned their counterparts in the Ministry of Education that they should proceed carefully since there was no guarantee the finance ministry would be able to honour any commitments they made.
According to the finance source, indications were that the Ministry of Education was proposing to offer bursaries capped at $2 900 for Barbadians studying at St Augustine in Trinidad, $2 500 to those at Mona in Jamaica, $1 800 if they were at Cave Hill and $2 500 for those who met the criteria and were studying at the University of The Bahamas. However, Cabinet is yet to see or approve this proposal.