Minister: Student loans are being delayed due to unsubmitted documents

Higher Education Minister Dr Ibrahim Hassan has said that the reason some people are having delays in receiving student loan payments is because they have not submitted the required documents.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Maldives Qualifications Authority (MQA) Qualification Recognition Conference, the minister responded to rumours that student loans are not being issued.

He said that the government does not have the budget to allocate loans to all the students adding that the opposition parties are talking about it as a political issue.

The minister said the students were informed by the ministry through an e-mail about the procedure and the details of all the documents required to be submitted would be included in the email.

Although many students submitted the required documents in advance as requested by the ministry, they had to face some administrative difficulties as some students were careless in checking their emails, he said. 

“All eligible students will receive the loan as the President announced. Under no circumstances will the loan be cancelled at a certain point. I don't understand why it has to be said that way,” Dr Ibrahim Hassan said.

The minister said the government's pledges are respected and the work of the Higher Education Ministry will be arranged within the set procedure.

A total of 1275 students have been awarded student loans this year. On February 15 this year, the government opened 20 student loan opportunities.

More than 1500 students applied for these opportunities and the government decided to issue loans to all the eligible students.

He also highlighted that a total of 3,261 students have been issued loans for higher education so far during President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s term.