Govt. to raise students’ stipend, launch complaint app in January

Higher Education Minister Dr. Ali Haidar Ahmed states the government has decided to increase the stipend awarded to students on government scholarships, and that the mobile application for students to report complaints and difficulties they face will be launched next month.

North Galolhu MP Mohamed Ibrahim (Kudoo) submitted a detailed report to the Minister regarding the stipend issue on Thursday. The main concerns raised in this report include delays in the disbursement of tuition fee and stipend, delays in receiving reimbursements and difficulties in communicating with the Higher Education Ministry.

According to Kudoo, the report is based upon two documents comprising of complaints from students. In this regard, the first document reports delays in financial transactions such as a months’ delay in disbursement for reimbursement for airfare and other expenses. It also reports difficulties in communicating with the Ministry, such as “seenzoning” messages sent by students.

Notably, the Higher Education Ministry is developing a mobile application under the name ‘Higher Education Management System’ for students studying abroad under government funding in a bid to resolve difficulties on communicating with the Ministry. Although the Ministry targeted to complete the application by October, it has yet to launched.

Speaking with Sun regarding the matter, Minister Haidar reported that there are issues in the developmental stage of the application, with it still in the testing phase.

However, he expressed confidence of launching the application before the end of January.

“The app will be launched before the end of January. We can implement the app by then. At present, the testing phase is underway,” he said.

The second document underpinning Kudoo’s report emphasises that the stipend, set several years ago, does not adequately meet current needs due to inflation.

Referring to this, the Minister told Sun that the government has decided to increase the stipend. However, he did not specify a date by which these changes can be brought into effect.

“We have decided to revise the stipend,” he said.

Speaking further, Minister Haidar said the majority of the issues highlighted in Kudoo’s report will be resolved within this week. In this regard, he said the government is working on resolving the delays in disbursement of stipend within this week. However, he stressed that the stipend will be disbursement to students who submit the necessary documents with all required information.

While the Ministry is working towards resolving issues arising from difficulties in communicating with the Ministry and delays in disbursement of stipend, Kudoo’s report also highlights other pertinent issues which needs addressing.

In this regard, the report highlights cases where the Ministry’s failure to pay tuition fees have resulted in students studying abroad, such as in Australia, facing suspended bank accounts and restricted access to their academic results and classes. In some cases, the issue has escalated to the potential cancellation of scholarships.

It also highlights issues such as documents submitted by students being misplaced, and being repeatedly instructed to resubmit the same documents, as well as difficulties arranging meetings with the relevant staff.

Parents and students overseas have been voicing frustration on social media over delays in receiving stipends and tuition fees and difficulties in communicating with the Ministry for months.

While responding to questions at a parliamentary sitting on April 30^th, Minister Haidar admitted delays in acknowledged delays in disbursing payments for students studying abroad on government’s loan schemes and scholarships. However, he attributed the delays to incomplete information or documents provided by students.