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Monday, March 27, 2006 

Government to review overseas scholarships

Monday, March 27, 2006

The Education Council up to May 2005 had granted 67 overseas scholarships at a cost of $1.2 million and 84 local scholarships worth $644,000, the Legislative Assembly (LA) heard last week. Members were also informed during the question and answer session that the policy for granting overseas scholarships is under review.

Replying to a question raised by Bodden Town MLA Osbourne Bodden, Education Minister Hon Alden McLaughlin gave a breakdown of overseas scholarships as: One in Humanities (English); 11 Professional studies, 10 Education; 21 Social and business studies; 19 Engineering, and 5 in Medicine.

Parliament was informed that the majority of the 84 students on local scholarships attend the University College (UC), six pursuing six bachelor degrees; 40 associate degrees and 16 one-year certificates. Of the others, ten students are pursuing ‘A’ levels; six attend Cayman Islands Law School and three are students of the International College of the Cayman Islands.

In reply to supplementary queries from West Bay MLA Roltson Anglin, the minister explained that the policy followed by the Education Council when he assumed chairmanship is still in operation but is under review.

According to the policy, if UC or other tertiary institution offers a degree programme locally, no scholarship is available for those who wish to pursue the same degree overseas, unless they have completed the two-year associate degree at UC and are continuing on in a degree programme in an overseas institution.

However, if UC’s associate degrees cannot fulfil requirements for an overseas bachelor’s degree in a particular discipline, then a full scholarship is awarded for overseas study, Mr. McLaughlin detailed. The policy was designed to ensure that the UC could develop properly and to reduce the costs of scholarships by government, since half of a first degree would be covered locally.

However, this policy is under review and awaits a decision. Since UC has started offering bachelor’s degrees only since this academic year, the council did not until now have to consider whether it should insist that students seeking overseas scholarships complete bachelor’s degrees in Cayman. This matter is now under review.

Mr McLaughlin said the application process for scholarship closes on 31 March, following that, the Education Council would decide on the matter, adding that it is a brand new era. Asked for a cost analysis of local vis-a-vis overseas study in view of the fact that sometimes the cost for local students who have to rent accommodations and pay for food could be high, Mr. McLaughlin noted the point was a legitimate one but he had not seen any cost analysis in this regard.

As a result of the National Education Conference last year, “We are going through a major reform exercise,” he said, adding that one of the strategies addressed tertiary education. Additionally, a separate strategy was considering the validity and usefulness of a well-established secretariat for the Education Council.

Such a secretariat would be better able to deal with the whole question of educational scholarships. At present, the Education Council’s criteria for eligibility for a scholarship to UC are that the student has to be Caymanian and accepted at the institution.

This is tantamount to free tertiary education for such students. It did not appear there is need for the procedure to go through the Education Council, he noted. The hope was to get a full-fledged secretariat established by the start of the next school year.

Minister McLaughlin agreed that such a secretariat could also deal with ensuring enhanced dovetailing of scholarship grants with human resource requirements, such as employment of returning overseas graduates who received scholarships.

He added that meetings were underway even as he spoke to deal with human resource issues and make recommendations. To another query, he expected that UC’s bachelor degree programme would be as well received as the associate degree programme is presently by reputable overseas universities and other educational institutions.

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