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Published on September 4, 2007

"We are going to launch the e-student loan system," Office of the Student Loan Fund manager Dr Thada Martin said yesterday. He was speaking to representatives from 880 educational institutes across the country.

Thada said his office had spent Bt171 million to develop the system since 2005 and that it would see money reaching students and educational institutes within a month of the start of new semesters.

To complement the new system, Thada said a committee would be formed to make loan-application procedures less complicated but more efficient.

There were loud complaints from students and educational institutes this year over the time it has taken for the Office of the Student Loan Fund to transfer the money.

Thada said yesterday said about a million students sought loans from his office this year with combined loans up to about Bt35.8 billion.

"But until this time, educational institutes have submitted about 300,000 loan applications only," he said. "On this part, we thus can transfer just about Bt4.5 billion to students and educational institutes".

Thada expressed confidence that the e-student loan system would prevent delays from the loan-application process.

He said the loan fund office was also preparing to set up a new debt-management unit to tackle bad debts.

Up to 85,000 graduates had failed to repay loans sought to fund their studies when repayment was due. Only 68 per cent of loan recipients had repaid the Student Loan Fund.

The Nation