Galen’s Provost says there is no greater investment that in education

Access to higher education in Belize is costly and relatively expensive for the everyday man. One person who agrees is the Provost of Galen University, Dr. Eve Aird, who believes that this factor keeps many professionals from advancing their studies. However, Dr. Aird says that while it is a costly investment, the returns are great. She explained how Galen University works with Belizeans who want to attend university but may not have the funds readily available. 

Dr.Eve Aird, Provost, Galen University: “When you retire at 55,60,65, what are you gonna live on ? What it is that you envision for yourself over your lifespan ? A teacher who has an associates degree might earn maybe $18,000 a year but with a bachelor’s degree they would earn about $27,000 a year just around there I think they start at at least when I was a high school principal that’s where they started at. So if they invested two years of their life and money it would cost them maybe about $15-20,000 but immediately they get that bachelor’s degree their salary jumps about $8-10,0000 so that’s where you have to think about it. Now where does that money come from ? DFC I will tell you and I’ll make a plug for DFC, DFC has a really good student loan program right now. The interest rates have lowered tremendously somewhere about 7%. Galen University also has a student loan program and our interest rates are at 7% too but apart from that if you didn’t want to take out a loan if you you know people may have a young married couple they might have they have a mortgage already so they don’t have a piece of land and a house to use as collateral but there are ways to do it. At Galen for example we have a student payment plan, a tuition payment plan that the student can make their payments over a period of time and we have a variety of options. We have a student finance officer here today but we invite you to call Galen and I’ll put you through – any student listening to this interview I will connect them with our student finance officer they can discover various ways that we can help students to finance their education and we also have a scholarship program.”