AUTHOR(S)
AKULLO TEOPISTA, MUSISI FRED KAMOGA
ABSTRACT
In Uganda, limited financial resources often obstruct higher education opportunities,
particularly for those with modest incomes. Various financial aid initiatives have been
introduced in an attempt to rectify this issue for equitable access. This study aimed to
investigate the impact of financial aid initiatives on higher education accessibility, guided by
two main research questions: (1) To what extent do financial aid programmes bolster access
to higher education? (2) What challenges do students face in accessing financial aid for higher
education? Employing a mixed-methods approach, data on enrolment into higher education
institutions in Uganda were extracted from a National Council for Higher Education (NCHE)
2020 report for an overview into impacts of financial aid on access to higher education. For
contextual and in-depth insight into the impacts of financial aid programmes on access to
higher education, secondary data on loan schemes in two public universities and the Kabaka
Education Fund in a private university were obtained and analysed using descriptive
statistics. To understand the experiences and perspectives of financial aid programme
recipients, qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 138 beneficiaries,
including 12 individual recipients and 13 focus group discussions (FGDs) that involved
126 progressing recipients with about 9–10 persons per group from the three selected
universities, whose responses were analysed using thematic content analysis. The results
revealed that much as financial aid programmes have improved access to higher education
in Ugandan universities, most financial services remain accessible primarily to wealthier
individuals owing to barriers including application procedures, expenditure, discriminatory
practices, limited information, a negative attitude towards aid and demotivation. The study
recommends prioritising strategies that address the needs of a diverse student population to
ensure equitable access to higher education, thereby promoting human progress, economic
development, and the achievement of sustainable development goals.
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