Equity, transparency in GATE programme

TERTIARY Education Minister Colm Imbert yesterday assured that the criteria for access to the new Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme, will be “transparent and equitable and no one will be denied assistance for their tuition expenses under the programme.” In a letter to Newsday, Imbert said the programme was designed to “remove the barriers currently preventing many citizens from accessing higher education.”

He said the GATE plan removed the inequities in the Dollar for Dollar programme, since in addition to covering 50 percent of tuition expenses, GATE will create a system for payment by government for the full tuition expenses of needy students from lower income groups. The minister said as a result, needy students will receive a waiver of up to 100 percent of their tuition expenses. He added unlike the Dollar for Dollar programme, which was restricted to courses in the public institutions, GATE will assist students in private institutions. Imbert stressed that GATE was designed as a “true gateway” to human development. He said in achieving the objective of becoming a developed country by 2020, the country must significantly increase the participation of “our people in higher education programmes from the existing rate of ten percent to a rate in excess of 20 percent.” He said the only way to do this was through programmes like GATE.

Last Thursday, following the weekly Cabinet meeting, Imbert announced government’s intention to introduce GATE to replace the Dollar for Dollar programme. He said then that a funding and grand administrative unit will be formulated to manage the programme in the Ministry of Tertiary Education. He also announced that the students revolving loan fund, university student guarantee load fund and other schemes are to be merged into the Higher Education Loan Programme.