UWI offering ‘safety net’

The University of the West Indies (UWI) is moving to help students who have problems financing their tertiary education.
Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, Sir Hilary Beckles, said a “safety net” now being worked on would include a flexible payment scheme.
He referred specifically to students who could not access the Barbados Government’s Student Revolving Loan Scheme or loans from commercial banks and other lending institutions.
He spoke of help for people “who are really crippled by their own desperate commercial and financial circumstances” as well as Barbadian students jolted by the announcement that from September they would have to pay tuition fees.
Sir Hilary indicated that the payments problem, a result of the Barbados Government asking students to pay their tuition fees from the next semester, was hurting applications to UWI and returning student numbers. (TY)