Scholarship support through toppers in priority areas will continue but Government is redirecting 120 of the 600 awards to applicants in the civil service and the private sector, with a higher priority given to females.
Also, 95 of the 120 awards will go towards study in areas of inclusive education, early childhood education, counselling and psychology and the remaining 25 awards will be for post-graduate programs such as dermatology, anaesthesia, epidemiology, midwifery obstetrics, gynaecology, emergency nursing, surgery and pathology.
Other measures announced for TELS (Tertiary Education Loans Scheme) include:
- It will only be provided to students from families with a household income of less than $100,000. All recipients above the age of 18 must also be fully vaccinated.
- The entry mark for the new academic year is 280. Eligibility marks for accounting, tourism, law, management and public administration and certain areas in teacher training, medicine and health increased to 300 marks for Year 13.
- students on industrial or clinical attachments to get monthly allowance of $100 on top of what is provided by their employers.
- 5000 TELS placements will be made available for TVET courses at FNU. This includes Certificates 3 and 4 as well as Diploma Level 5. Those students who will not be able to make the cut-off mark for TELS for degree programs will be able to join this scheme, including Year 12 students.
- All MBBS students privately enrolled with a minimum Year 13 mark of 340, first year GPA of 3.0 or more and family income below $100,000 will be eligible for a one-off payment of $10,000 government grant towards their MBBS education.
