Fiji’s Ministry of Education will start tracking the employment status of students funded by the Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service (TSLS) this year, a significant shift since the inception of the government’s tertiary education assistance scheme in 2014.
Since its establishment, the scheme has supported 70,904 students with a substantial investment of $1.1 billion. However, until this year, there has been no formal mechanism to record the employment status of these graduates, according to Education Minister Aseri Radrodro. This gap has been addressed with recent legislative amendments.
“With the amendments to the TSLS Act, Bill No. 16 of 2024, and Act No. 12 of 2024, TSLS now has the mandate to collect student employment records,” Radrodro stated. Previously, neither the Higher Education Commission (HECF) nor TSLS had the legal authority to gather such data.
A key change is section 17A of the TSLS Act, which now mandates that students or former students who are employed or self-employed must update their employment status with TSLS.
“All TSLS-funded students are now required to submit their employment records to TSLS within six months of starting employment or self-employment, and at any other time as directed by TSLS,” Radrodro said. “This requirement will not only enable TSLS to track where students are employed but will also assist in the bond clearance process and national planning.”
Of the 70,904 funded students, 68,700 received scholarships, study loans, and grants at 19 local tertiary institutions and 18 institutions in Australia and New Zealand. An additional 1,879 students have been assisted through the Micro Qualification Grant, and 325 students through the apprenticeship scheme.
Before these legislative changes, TSLS recorded the distribution of students among various institutions. The largest numbers were at the Fiji National University (FNU) with 30,226 students, the University of the South Pacific (USP) with 20,610 students, and the Technical College of Fiji with 10,857 students. Of the total students funded, 21,685 students have either absconded, are inactive, or have not graduated with expired bonds between 2014 and 2023, representing an investment of approximately $160 million.
