The Government will now provide full-time scholarships under the National Toppers Scheme effective from Semester 1 2022 for Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery.
While announcing this, the Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this will amend the existing scholarship regulation to include students who did Year 13 in 2020.
Sayed-Khaiyum says in the 2021-2022 National Budget, Government allocated funds for MBBS students who had privately enrolled and met the criteria for a one-off $10,000 Government Grant.
He says in February this year, 42 students were selected and can use the grant to clear off the fees for 2021.
Sayed-Khaiyum says to accommodate private MBBS students of 2021, the National Toppers Scheme will change to include those who did Year 13 in 2020, had marks of 340 and above, a GPA of 3.0 and above in 2021, and combined parental income of less than $100,000.
The Minister also announced that the quota for nursing was set for 100 students for the 2022 new intake, but this may not be sufficient given the fact that many nurses are resigning, either leaving the profession or relocating.
Sayed-Khaiyum says to fill the gaps created by resignations and migration of nurses, the TELS quota for Bachelor of Nursing will be increased to 350.
He says the accelerated Repayment Incentives for TELS students was introduced in the 2018/2019 Budget to offer TELS students heavy discounts for the early repayment of loans.
Sayed-Khaiyum for this initiative, the determination of the repayment period for discount eligibility will exclude 2020, 2021 and 2022.
He says the quota for TELS for degree programmes will now be increased from 2,000 to 2,942, with increased attention to areas such as Medicine and Health, Engineering, Science and Technology.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the government has considered a one-off temporary measure to reduce the TELS entry mark to 250, except for the Commerce category, where the cutoff mark will remain at 280 with a quota of 850, due to the oversupply of graduates.
He says programmes in the Commerce category will still require an entry mark of 300.
Sayed-Khaiyum says as of 21 March 2022, the Fiji Maritime Academy had opened its doors to start the new academic year, offering a Diploma in either Nautical Science or Marine Engineering, with a range of short courses to obtain a Certificate of Competency.
Click to read: 2021-2022 Revised Budget Estimates
Click to read: 2021-2022 Revised Budget Supplement
