Sustainability of Higher Education Students’ Loan Scheme (HESLS) in Tanzania

Abstract

This this study attempt to examine the financial sustainability of higher education students’ loans scheme (HESLS) operating in Tanzania via HESLB. The government established higher education students’ loans board (HESLB) through Act No 9 of 2004 (CAP 178) as amended. HESLB was set up to provide financial facilitation in terms of loans to eligible and needy students to help them to cover the cost of their education. After its launch in 2005, the scheme had been facing lots of challenges such as a continuous rise in student’s financial requirements over and above government budget. It also faces hardship in identifying the poor needy students and low rate of the repayment recovery mainly due to strategic deferred debts. In view of that, education stakeholders claimed that the implementation of the HESLS in Tanzania is not only moves out of efficient track but also moved out of being self-sustainable. This study, therefore, employ a mix method approach, use both secondary and primary data in the analysis. It applied a regression model to evaluate the level of financial Sustainability of HESLS in Tanzania. The results found that, despite the fact that there is decreasing trend of Operating self-Sufficiency (OSS), the set of the independent variable tested correlate with the dependent variable. The study suggests that HESLB should expand its revenue base so as to avoid the adverse trend of OSS. Finally, although the present results will contribute to existing knowledge, but knowledge alone is not enough. Therefore, it is anticipated that it will also be a useful other education stakeholders.

Keywords: Higher Education, Students’ Loans scheme, financial sustainability, cost sharing, Tanzania