Scholarships for best students

The 1,000 students who receive the highest marks in the nationwide university entrance exams will receive a 100% scholarship from the state. 29,000 students applied to take these exams, of which up to 5,000 did not overcome a threshold and therefore did not qualify to take them.

Of the remaining 24,000 the best will become university students. Preliminary exam results are available but not final ones as the period of challenging received marks has not yet concluded. Everything will be finalised after August 20.

The Labour Party has challenged the above information, which was disseminated by Director of the National Exams Centre Maia Miminoshvili. Ideological Secretary of the Labour Party Kakha Dzagania has stated that none of the applicants will receive 100% state financing. This has been done so that students from poor families will not be able to afford to study, says Dzagania. Miminoshvili has refused to comment on such “nonsense.”

The increase in tuition fees at Georgian universities has caused comment. At Javakhishvili State University the annual fee used to be GEL 1,500, but now it is GEL 2,250. Caucasus University has increased fees to between 8,500 and 16,900 whereas last year maximum was 14,900. The European School of Management is charging GEL 7,200 this year, last year it was 6,900. Black Sea International University tuition now costs 6,930, last year it was GEL 4,890. There are some universities however, mostly in the regions, which charge as little as GEL 1,500 or less annually.