Weerawansa urges President to fast-track interest-free university student loan scheme

By Sanath Nanayakkare

National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Wimal Weerawansa yesterday urged the Finance Minister and President Ranil Wickremesinghe to expedite the enrollment of students selected to enter non-state/private universities under the student loan scheme initiated by the Yahapalana government in 2017.

“As you are well aware, due to the limited

capacity of enrolling students to state universities, not all students who are eligible for university entrance in Sri Lanka get the opportunity. Against this backdrop, the interest-free loan scheme for selected students to enter private universities was introduced in 2017 while you were the prime minister of that administration.

Under this programme, five consecutive student groups are to be enrolled in private universities, however, the students selected by the Ministry of Higher Education to enter nominated private universities for the Academic Year 2021/2022, have not yet been registered.

The anxiously awaiting students are very concerned about this delay as years don’t wait for them and they can’t reverse the damage caused by it on their future,” Weerawansa stated writing a letter to the President on the matter.

“Providing the opportunity of enrollment to such students to private universities under the above interest-free student loan scheme would be a progressive measure because the capital we invest as a nation for tomorrow’s academic and professional excellence of our students would be a meaningful investment for the future.

“About 15,000 students who belong to this aspirant group are told by the Ministry of Higher Education that financial institutions including the Bank of Ceylon are citing the prevailing higher interest rates as a barrier to implementing this scheme as planned earlier. So I kindly request you to pay immediate attention to this matter as the finance minister and take appropriate action to resolve this issue and accelerate the registration process and intake of these students.”

Several students selected to enter private universities under this scheme told The Island that they were told by Higher Education Ministry authorities at a Zoom meeting that the state bank involved in the project is not willing to give out these loans at the previous rates (12%-13%) as current bank interest rates have exceeded 22% per annum. So we got the impression that either the government would have to give a fresh guarantee to the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) on the new interest payments or our parents would have to pay the increased part of the interest. Most of us are from low and middle income levels of the society, and therefore, it would be practically impossible for our parents to bear a significant share of the interest cost.”

According to the Higher Education Ministry’s website, the total interest-free loan period is 12 years. The repayment of the loan should be started after the study period and one-year grace period.