703 SUST students to get soft loan to buy smartphones

A total of 703 students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) will get interest-free loans to purchase smartphones to attend online academic activities during pandemic, reports UNB.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh is giving the soft loans, SUST registrar Mohd Ishfaqul Hussain told UNB on Sunday.

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 4 November last, the UGC at a meeting decided to provide 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 31 January 2021 following recommendation of the Soft Loan Approval Committee.

About the soft loan, SUST vice-chancellor 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.

Professor 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.