Some 117 student teams that took part in a project competition won 342 million MNT in project finance from the government on May 24. Minister of Education, Culture and Science L.Gantumur opened the award ceremony. “We undoubtedly have to become people who create knowledge. We have to become the people who offer that knowledge to seven billion people. I believe that the young people sitting in this hall can be the ones leading those people. To create knowledge, I want you to be creative from the time when you’re a student. We want governance where a creative student is encouraged. That’s why we are giving 340 million MNT to student initiatives for the first time. You can say that this is the first time in Mongolia,” said Minister L.Gantumur. He told the attendees of the ceremony that they are now “faced with great responsibility.” “Our support for creative students reach not three, not five, but 476 students of 117 teams. It’s a good thing that these students are starting to work as a team to solve problems which they face. We have high hopes for the students. We believe that we’re not in a very good place because we’re not using our young people to their fullest capabilities. That’s why we have to encourage them and increase their participation in solving problems,” he added. The project is being implemented through a soft loan from the Asian Development Bank. “If these initial projects are implemented successfully, we can solve investments from international organizations later. In the long run, it can be allocated from the state budget, and I’m confident that their projects will be encouraged through university scholarships,” noted L.Gantumur. During the ceremony, country director of the Asian Development Bank in Mongolia Robert Schoellhammer gave a speech in Mongolian and wished the students luck. The student project competition was organized among natural sciences, agriculture, and engineering undergraduate students as a part of the Higher Education Reform Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Projects of 117 project teams from 36 universities were chosen from a total of 279 entries. Twenty-four of the winning projects were submitted from provincial universities and 93 were from universities in Ulaanbaatar. The students submitted projects under eight directives: to contribute to social development, to improve the learning environment of students, to stimulate student club activities, to improve dormitory environment, to improve student services, to promote student employment, to support student exchange programs within Mongolia, and to improve services for disabled students.