Higher Education Ministry to launch portal to speed up response time

Ministry of Higher Education, Labour and Skills Development has announced that they are planning to introduce a dedicated portal to address concerns of delays in responding to letters sent by students studying under the Free Degree Programme and Student Loans.

Minister Dr Ali Haidar stated this in a response to a written question posed by ruling People's National Congress MP for Central Hithadhoo Ahmed Azaan Marzoog.

The minister's letter was read out in parliament today, where he said that over 600 letters and emails are received per day by the ministry's Scholarship section, Loan Section and Free Degree section.

The ministry said that dissatisfaction about issuance of loans had led to more queries being submitted to the ministry, which in turn led to delays in response as the ministry handled its day to day work alongside sending replies.

However, the ministry strived to respond to all queries within seven days, he said, adding that the ministry is now working on reducing the time to three days.

To further address the issue, efforts are now ongoing to establish a portal to manage information regarding students, Minister Haidar wrote.

He announced that the portal will be operational by October, which will significantly speed up ministry responses to student requests.