Educational loan queries increase, route to course of choice

Board results declared students have started heading towards colleges and universities for admission so as the queries for educational loan from the banks have also gone up. According to bank sources in the past few months there has been increase in the demand for educational loans, some say by almost 50% over last year. Mostly the queries are coming from those students who are looking beyond Delhi University (DU), into the vast range of choices offered by other universities.

For instance Aditi Kalra (name changed), a class XII student from Delhi, who has scored 72% in her Board exams. Kalra wants to take admission in Economics (Honours) program in a good college, but have less hope of getting it because of her average marks. “And since the cut-offs go up every year, it's bound to be tougher to get admission in an A-list college this year,” says the Commerce student. Hence Kalra has already drawn up an alternate plan of applying to private institutes, where she hopes to get the program of her choice.

Like Kalra there are many more enquiring about loans Sandeep Puri, an official at the Oriental Bank of Commerce says, “The number of queries about educational loans has gone up by 50% from last year.” It is not only the OBC which is reporting an increase in number of applications and queries for loans even the Punjab and National bank (PNB) has already processed 879 applications in the month of April, 2008, disbursing Rs 21 crore as education loans. According to a senior official at the bank the figure is likely to go up further, especially with the admission season just taking off in most universities in the country.

According to Bank officials in the past few years the number is going up steadily. SBI, had distributed loan of Rs 113 crore last year in the Delhi region, says, “There has been an appreciable upwards movement in the number of loans being disbursed this year.”

According to SBI chief general manager (personal banking), Nanda Kumar, it would be too early to talk about figures, but by looking at the trend it is quite clear more students are opting to take the educational loan route to fulfill their dreams.

He adds, “Since the terms of loan are quite simple, students prefer to pay off a loan than put extra pressure on their parents.”

It is not difficult to find the reason behind the increase in the loan applications. The DU officials acknowledge the crisis for seats in the university has forced many students to opt for private institutes. There are only 43,000 seats available and over 1.5 lakh applicants, it's a tall order indeed

Says S K Vij, dean of students welfare, “Getting through into a college in Delhi University is getting progressively more difficult. In such a scenario, students will look at any option, even a private institute for a good course.”