SLB warns University of Technology

Correction & Clarification

The Gleaner identified Professor Errol Miller as chairman of the University of Technology (Utech). Professor Miller,however, is not chairman of Utech, and the comments attributed to him should have been attributed to Professor Errol Morrison, president of UTech. We regret the error and any inconvenience caused.

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Bureau will withhold funds if students do not comply with application process

Jamaica's state-owned students' loan agency has threatened not to
honour a commitment to pay over more than $300 million in tuition fees
to the University of Technology (UTech) if more than 1,200 of its
students failed to complete the application process by last week Friday.

The
warning to withhold the funds, which would have dire consequences for
the university, was made in a letter dated December 9, 2011, penned by
the executive director of the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB), Monica Brown.

Professor Errol Morrison, president of UTech, told The Sunday Gleaner that
if UTech did not get the promised funds, it would be a devastating blow
to the operations of the university. "We are going to have to turn out
students from here because they can't afford to pay," added Morrison.

"Needless to say, that's a third of a billion … . We would have to make some serious cutbacks," he said.

In a letter to Deryke Smith, University of Technology's (UTech) chief business and finance officer, executive director of the Student's Loan Bureau (SLB), Monica Brown, made it clear that the bureau would not pay tuition fees for some 1,208 students if they did not complete the necessary application process by December 16, 2011.

On average, each of those students owed the university $250,000.

The SLB took this hard-line posture after several reminders "by way of emails and text messages, for submission of all the required information/documentation to facilitate completion of the process".

"No further consideration will be given to these applicants after this deadline," read a section of the SLB letter.

Brown continued: "Consequently, the SLB will not undertake to disburse funds to your institution to cover the tuition costs of these students for the 2011/12 period. In that regard, a final list of the students whose loans are cancelled will be provided to the institution at the end of day on 16 December 2011."

Got letter on December 13

In his response, Smith told Brown that he received the letter on December 13, 2011, only after a bearer from UTech visited the SLB's New Kingston offices to deliver the 2010/2011 reconciliation report.

Smith also noted that the university held two "lengthy" meetings - the first in mid-November and the second earlier this month, "where the matter of outstanding reconciliation of the university and the urgent need for SLB to remit outstanding funds were discussed extensively".

"At no point in the named meetings did your team or yourself raise the issue of incomplete applications to put the university on guard for the potential loss of revenue from SLB for a significant number of students," Smith stated.

He argued that the lateness of SLB's ultimatum effectively gave UTech less than three working days to accomplish the mammoth task of mobilising a drive to get the 1,208 students fully compliant with the bureau's requirements.

"Based on our standard operating process, if the SLB had advised us at our initial meeting about the level of non-compliance, the university would have withheld examination cards from these students and would have instructed them to complete the SLB process in order for them to sit their examinations," Smith reasoned in his written response to the SLB's executive director.

SLB's commitment

In the meantime, Professor Errol Morrison, chairman of UTech, revealed that the SLB had committed to paying over a total of $548 million in tuition fees to the university for this academic year, but the institution is yet to receive a dollar of that amount, which he said is unusual at this time of year as the SLB would normally have already made some payments in tranches. At the same time, Jheanell Johnson, president of UTech's Students' Union complained that notices received by some students reportedly had conflicting deadline dates and claimed that the administrative staff played a part in the incomplete application process.

Johnson also revealed that plans are in the pipeline to initiate a march on the SLB if positive feedback was not received this week. "The students are very restive and anxiously await word from the SLB," said Johnson, who revealed that she was invited to attend a meeting on Monday with representatives from the SLB and UTech.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com