Government has released the names of the 2,790 students who will benefit from the Higher Education Students’ Loan Scheme for the 2026/2027 academic year — and for the first time since the scheme began, every single district in Uganda has at least one beneficiary.
The list was released by acting Education Minister Dr. John Chrysostom Muyingo at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, after the ministry rolled out a new district quota system designed to spread the loans more fairly across the country. Districts that had previously been missing from the beneficiary list altogether — among them Amudat, Buvuma, Kalangala, Karenga, Kotido and Moroto — finally have students on this year’s list.
The numbers behind the list
This academic year, the ministry received 10,615 applications, a jump of 48.9% from the 7,125 applications it got in 2025/2026. Of those, 8,005 applicants (75.4%) were found eligible after screening, but only 2,790 — a success rate of 34.8% of eligible applicants — actually made the final cut. According to the ministry, most of the students who missed out weren’t disqualified on merit; they simply failed to submit complete applications, particularly missing documentation.
The successful 2,790 will study at 33 government and private chartered universities across the country.
How the selection actually works
Michael Wanyama, the commissioner in charge of the higher education students’ financing scheme, explained that the ministry used a three-tier selection model recommended by Parliament: 30% of slots went by district quota, another 30% were shared out to districts and cities in proportion to their number of eligible applicants, and the remaining 40% were awarded based on socio-economic vulnerability, scored through the ministry’s Integrated Loan Management Information System.
“We are pleased to report that every part of the country has had a fair share of representation, with emphasis on district quota,” Wanyama said.
Girls outnumber boys for the first time
In a first for the scheme, more female students made the list than male ones this year — 1,400 women (50.2%) against 1,390 men (49.8%). That’s a sharp jump from last year, when only 862 of the beneficiaries were female.
Sixty-four students living with disabilities were also awarded loans this round — 46 male and 18 female — to pursue both science and humanities courses.
Of the total beneficiaries, 2,019 will pursue undergraduate degrees while 771 will go for diplomas. The single most popular course is Bachelor of Science with Education (581 beneficiaries), followed by engineering programmes (498), computer science (313) and healthcare management (284).
What Muyingo had to say
Muyingo used the announcement to push back on doubts about whether the loan scheme can keep going. “This year will be the 13th cohort of our beneficiaries. Over 10,000 Ugandans have been supported under the scheme,” he said, crediting President Yoweri Museveni’s continued push to fund it. He promised the number of slots would keep growing “as and when resources allow,” and urged current beneficiaries to finish their studies on time. For graduates already employed, his message was blunter: start servicing your loan, so the fund can support the next needy student in line.
The loans cover tuition, functional fees, research fees, and — for students with disabilities — aids and appliances.
