Utech focus: Assisting needy students during difficult times

The University of Technology (UTech) is committed to providing every possible support for its students to be successful in their tertiary studies. In keeping with this mandate, the Financial Aid Office at UTech has been providing financial support to students in three core areas. These are welfare grants, the Earn-and-Study work programme and bursaries and scholarships. To this end, the Financial Aid Office currently manages more than $293 million in funding support. In the fiscal year 2009/2010, 503 needy students were assisted with welfare grants valuing over $8.2 million. This represents a significant increase of 29 per cent over the previous year.

The support has been gradually increased owing to the growth in student numbers and the escalating economic hardships being experienced by students. This welfare grant assists in areas such as tuition, lunch, bus passes, rent and boarding and teaching-practice expenses. Under the Earn-and-Study programme where students are assigned to administrative offices across the campus to gain work experience and to earn while they pursue studies, 408 students were employed during the 2009/10 fiscal year, representing a five per cent increase over the previous year.

Scholarships and bursaries valuing more than $66 million were dispersed during the last financial year and benefited more than 400 needy students from all faculties. This represents a dramatic increase of more than $20 million from the previous year owing to the positive response from donors and sponsors to the plight of the overwhelming demand for financial assistance to students.

The university is grateful for the support of major sponsors during the last financial year.

The university has embarked on a fund-raising drive to raise some US $10 million over the next two years to secure both monetary and non-monetary resources in support of the university's broad development objectives and welcomes the support of other private sector partners on this mission.

The university is grateful for the support of major sponsors during the last financial year.