The Tertiary Grant Veil

In his contribution to parliament on June 12th, 2019 Minister of Education Jefferey Lloyd announced the government’s implementation of a tertiary grant program tenable for qualified Bahamians attending the University of The Bahamas (UB). The grant is preconceived as the Free National Movement’s (FNM) campaign promise of free tuition for Bahamians at UB. Subsequently, it was outlined to cover the cost of tuition, course fees, stipends for teachers and nurses in training and an accommodation allowance of up to $500 per month for students who must relocate to New Providence to attend the university. Essentially, the government’s campaign promise to Bahamians was to make the University of The Bahamas “free”.

As a result, UB then decided to consolidate the previous teacher education and nursing grants, the national bursary and the student-athlete financial assistance into the newly implemented tertiary grant. It should be noted that these former grants had always been fully funded and quite a number of past and current students benefited greatly from them during their studies.

Since the implementation of the new tertiary grant, the idea of “free” education has been far from what it was portrayed to be. It was rather an unfortunate dilemma for numerous students. An article published by the Nassau Guardian on June 21st, 2019 revealed that Deputy Prime Minister Hon. K. Peter Turnquest stated that “UB has done an analysis of their average full-time student intake, and they calculated what that would mean in terms of tuition, and the number is about $19 million, and we’ve provided for that.”

It should be noted that this analysis was not inclusive of additional costs associated with the new grant, which were at that time covered under already existing grants.

To make matters worse, the government only gave UB a lump sum of $17 million to fund the new grant, which was the amount that was formerly allotted to the national bursary by the previous Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) led government. This, then, puts the university and its students at a disadvantage. At the micro-level, numerous students who were once on full scholarships that covered 100% costs of tuition, and other university-related fees are now subjected to funding any additional fees outside of the new tertiary grant that only covers tuition and course fees. Additionally, students who moved from family islands under the premise of them receiving an accommodation stipend were not made aware of an age requirement for the grant, which does not permit students over the age of 25 years to receive any funding.

On the other hand, we must also take into consideration the disadvantages of this tertiary grant at the macro level for UB. Firstly, because of insufficient funding by our government since the inception of the tertiary grant, UB’s ability to sustain itself has been compromised. This is largely in part because the university has established itself as being an autonomous institution that thrives on its own generated funding. Having to rely solely on the government to provide funding is indeed an unpropitious move on behalf of UB and is a pure case of steps toward a socialist country.

Additionally, the burning question remains - What will become of UB’s brand? This question came as a major deal breaker as it should be noted that the FNM government lowered the qualifying grade point average (GPA) requirement to a mere 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previously, students on the teacher education grant, nursing grant, and national bursary were required to maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA to qualify for their scholarship. Meanwhile, at the University of the West Indies, Bahamian students are still required to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to qualify for the government’s subvention that pays some 50% - 80% of tuition. To add, Bahamian students who study abroad and qualify for the Public-School Scholars grant must maintain a minimum 2.75 GPA for Technical and Vocational Programmes and a 3.00 GPA each semester based on full time enrolment. If Bahamian students at UB [and The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute, while we’re on the subject] are limited to only having to meet the bare minimum to obtain to a degree, where do we see ourselves and more importantly our national tertiary institution in a globally competitive scale?

Worst case scenario, the fact that access to tertiary level education has been made more obtainable on a national scale, our country will have an even greater task on their hands trying to provide opportunities for so many highly skilled professionals. Let’s face it, The Bahamas in recent and previous years have experienced its fair share of ‘brain drain’. Whereas, many young people spend some years in college or university. Upon, graduation they have trouble trying to find jobs in the Bahamas. For the few that do get opportunities, they do not receive favorable income. Hence, they migrate to economically thriving countries like the United States and Canada to reap better opportunities. Previous and successive governments should have been striving to combat this issue at its heart. Instead, the current government administration implemented a new tertiary grant. Qualified individuals have always had access to tertiary education. The problem lies with the lack of opportunities throughout the Bahamas. This grant does not solve the real problem, it only amplifies it.

Overall, the government’s new tertiary grant can be viewed as a misconception within itself. Sure, it gives many Bahamians easier access to higher education. However, it does not change the reality of scarcity of career opportunities for all those individuals. The solution to this problem is straightforward. The government of The Bahamas ought to increase the availability of career opportunities for persons who graduate from college. Arguably, the government may lack the resources and funding to provide career opportunities for all. Hence, our government should implement initiatives such as grants that support entrepreneurship and research. These are more likely to operate with demonstrable success.

By: Danavio Neely