The government on Thursday announced opportunity to apply for government sponsored degree courses at Maldives National University (MNU) and Islamic University of Maldives (IUM).
Providing tuition free higher education is among the key pledges of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih targeted to be achieved within the first 100 days of administration. The largest amount of funds from the national budget for 2019, amounting to MVR 3.4 million were apportioned to the education sector in order to achieve the target.
Under the opportunity opened today, tuition fees of degree programs from the two government universities will be made tuition free, while a large portion of tuition fees at private colleges will be sponsored by the government. The government will also sponsor part of the tuition fees for foreign degree programs, if the larger part of the course is conducted in the Maldives.
More than 8000 students are currently enrolled at degree programs in the state universities. With the new opportunity opened today to pursue tuition-free education, it is estimated that the amount of students would increase upto 10,000, said the government.
