Loan disbursement and responses delayed due to high volume of students: Minister

The delay in disbursing loan funds and responding to students was caused by the large number of higher education loan recipients this year, said Higher Education Minister Dr. Mariyam Mariya today.

Speaking at the press conference at the President's Office, the minister acknowledged that students and their parents have been raising concerns over the delay in fund disbursal for some time now. With September/October intakes at international universities fast approaching or already commenced, the delays in receiving funds have become a significant issue.

However, Minister Mariya assured that all applications are being processed as fast as possible by working even on government holidays.

She further said that the reasons for delays in answering calls and disbursing funds include multiple calls and emails seeking updates on the same student's application, and having to issue loans for half of the 1,225 loan recipients from last year.

She went on to say that MVR 473 million has already been disbursed to students so far, and that an additional MVR 180 million has to be sent out.

State Minister at the Higher Education Ministry Dr. Abdul Raheem Hassan added that 214 students will leave the country for their studies this month alone and that the funds for most of these students has now been processed. He further detailed that they have confirmed that 74 students have already received their payments.

"The fund [disbursal process] of other students have reached different stages," he said.

Abdul Raheem said that it was previously not estimated that students would depart for studies this month. The date of students' departure is only determined from the documents submitted later and they try to manage this with whatever available resources, he added.

"It was very challenging for us this time. It was not easy to cater to all the students as there were some students who did not depart last year paired with the students from this year so that total came up to around the amount [I] just mentioned," he further said.

He also revealed that volunteers were recruited to expedite the process, adding that 290 students will leave for their studies by November.

Minister Mariya also added that while student loan funds are issued every six months upon confirmation of the student's continuation of studies, these funds are directly deposited into the Maldivian Rufiyaa accounts of student loan recipients while funds are directly deposited into the foreign bank accounts of loan recipients.

She also cited incomplete documents, lack of documents justifying the amount requested, students wanting to study in countries not included in the countries loans are granted for, and delays in documents from universities as well as submission of documents after the expected timeframe of submission as reasons for delays in fund disbursement.

Minister Mariya also said that the ministry would communicate directly communicate with the university via email if studies are disrupted due to funds being delayed. The ministry provides a detailed sponsor letter after clarifying the circumstances, and ensures that studies of students are not disrupted, she assured.