Sylhet Bureau :
A total of 703 insolvent students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) will get interest-free loans to purchase smartphones to enable them continue their online academic activities amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
SUST Registrar Mohd Ishfaqul Hussain told, The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh is giving the loans. To avail the loans, the enlisted students will have to apply to the soft loan approval committee and then the authorities will disburse the loan as per the rules, he said.
On November 4, the UGC at a meeting decided to sanction soft loans to some 41,501 students of the 39 public universities to buy smartphones to participate in their online academic activities. Each student will get maximum Tk 8,000 as loan without interest. The students will have to repay the loan in four installments.
The UGC has asked to disburse the loan among the students through their bank accounts by January 31, 2021 following recommendation of the Soft Loan Approval Committee.
About the soft loan, SUST Vice-Chancellor Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed said they will disburse the loans among the students soon.
He thanked the government and the UGC for supporting the students with loans to buy smartphones.
Prof Ahmed said SUST has been providing each indigent student with 15 GB free-data for the last four months for participating in the online classes.
