Govt to rate academic institutes to ease process of student loans

The Government of India is currently trying to devise a process of rating academic institutes in the country, in a bid to simplify the process of student loans.

A list ranking the institutes will aid the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in easing the entire process of providing and acquiring loans for higher education.

According to the plan, students who join institutes mentioned in the list will be granted preference to obtain study loans to pursue higher education. Moreover, the loans can be acquired in a hassle-free manner.

The measure is being adopted due to a large number of complaints coming in from eligible students who have faced hassles in obtaining study loans.

As per sources, the banks of India had extended loans of around Rs 62,800 crore to students till November, 2014, which was an increase of 4.6% in the fiscal year. The highest amount was extended by the State Bank of India (SBI), that is, Rs 15,387 crore till the end of September, 2014.

Since 2010-1011, there has been a significant rise in the demand for student loans. As a result, many banks are now asking for the grading of academic institutes, so that the risk on study loans can be minimized.

The HRD ministry and the Indian government have also come up with various other recommendations as well as policies to enhance the education sector of the country.

More than two crore students are currently pursuing their higher education in 35,829 colleges and 665 universities in India, according to the provisional report of the All India Survey on Higher Education 2012-13 (AISHE 2012-13). The exact number of students in these institutes, as per the survey, is 2,96,29,022.