Ministry facilitates 514 loans for higher education

Higher Education Ministry has announced that it will be facilitating loans applied for by 514 students to pursue education.

In a press conference today, Higher Education Minister Dr. Ibrahim Hassan said that 1,300 applications were received for the loans announced in February. 

The Ministry announced loan opportunities for 550 in February which was later reduced by 36 due to requirement issues.

Loans will also be facilitated for Zakat list registrees and the government's training need requirement areas. Opportunities for loans in marine engineering license and aircraft engineering was also facilitated this time. 

Loans were approved for:

• Diploma: 48 slots
• Bachelors Degree: 264 slots
• Masters Degree: 160 slots
• Ph.D.: 27 slots

For more queal distribution and to ensure that students from all over the country were included in the loan program, the Ministry facilitated loans for students from every electoral district of the country. However, the Ministry noted that only 46 applications were received from such districts. Due to requirement shortcomings, loans were facilitated for only 10 students out of these.

15 students have facilitated loans for MBBS while 22 were approved loans for specialization. 

The Minister said that studies must be commenced by loan receivers within a year, and if for any special circumstances, studies were not commenced, the Ministry must be informed. 

He also said that there were slim chances of more loan opportunities within this year, most likely due to the economic impact of COVID-19. However, human resources development programs would be commenced.