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Yes, you may access both loans concurrently, however the total loan amount cannot exceed 2 million dollars per academic year.
The maximum loan amount offered under this loan solution is 1 million dollars.
The interest rate on the PAYS product is 6% p.a.
You are given up to 7 years or 84 months to repay the loan.
The principal borrower is the person who is applying for the loan on behalf of the dependent student and is required to repay the loan via salary deduction.
The dependent student is the person attending the university/college on whose behalf, the principal borrower is taking the loan.
No, the application would have already been pre-approved and adjudication done with the information for the initial school choice. Hence, the existing application would have to be cancelled and a new application submitted by the applicant. Cancellation can be done via the Appeals Request on the Customer Portal.
Contact the SLB for assistance if you wish to change your school, programme of study or enrolment type.
After receiving your first loan at the SLB, you will be pre-approved for subsequent loans, however you will still be required to apply each year. Please note, however, that most of the information required for this new application will be pre-filled/populated with the details of the initial application submission. Hence, not much new information would need to be inputted on the application.
Apply early. Ensure that you complete and submit the application and supporting documents well before a month of the deadline.
Our application period usually commences in April, the start of a new fiscal year. Application forms are completed electronically on the SLB’s website- www.slbja.com. Applicants must read all instructions carefully before completing the form, then upload and submit the supporting documents as requested by the Bureau. Applicants will need one person who will consent to guarantee their loan.
Please check the list of mandatory documents required for your application. Scan and save these documents electronically so that you can upload during the application process online.
No. There is no penalty. You can pay off your loan(s) at any time, even if you are still enrolled in school. You may also increase the amounts and frequency of your payment at any time.
There are several easy ways to repay:
Borrowers now have fourteen (14) months to begin repayment after completion of study.
The repayment start date is September following the year of completion.
You have the option of restructuring your account. However conditions apply to this arrangement.
Borrowers now have fourteen (14) months to begin Repayment after completion of study.
The Repayment start date is September following the year of completion.
Once payments are not made in full and as scheduled per the agreement in your loan contract, the loan becomes delinquent.
You should contact the SLB to clear all arrears balances and/or to speak to an Officer, as there are penalties for delinquencies.
Less than the cost of a patty a day, goes a long way in reducing your loan balance faster.
Yes, provided you have repaid your previous loans or have satisfactory arrangements in place for its repayment prior to the completion of your second degree.
The SLB may approve loans to finance up to five years tuition depending on the length of the programme of study. Most courses of study are between three to four years, these persons may receive up to three/four loans. Medical and Law students may receive up to five loans.
Conditionally approved means that the loan has been pre-approved pending the signing of the loan contract by the applicant as well as the submission of all other documents required for the loan process.
You may apply to defer the commencement of repayment on your loan as you are still in school. The SLB process is called Graduation Date Extension which can be initiated via your Customer Portal account.
There is no set age limit on borrowing, however, the applicant must on completion of his/her course of study have 10 working years left before retirement; to ensure that the student loan is repaid.
Targeted
Pay As You Study (PAYS) – 6% p.a.
Postgraduate – 9.5% p.a.
The SLB’s Public Education programs are designed to engage our customers wherever they are. We seek to keep our customers and general public informed and current of the Bureau’s products and services. The following are some communication channels that the SLB uses:
Students approved for loans will get up to 100 percent of the cost of their tuition fees. For persons studying programmes which fall in the non-sponsored category, the SLB funds up to the amount of the sponsored programme.
Please contact your university/college to ascertain which of their programmes are government sponsored.
Please contact the SLB either via your Portal account or in office for any of the above scenarios.
All loans are insured to cover incidents such as illnesses (mental and physical incapacitation) or death.
Insurance protects you from liability in the event of any of the conditions above.
There are two types of insurance premiums.
Disclaimer: not all persons are insurable.
The SLB only funds applicants who are fully matriculated to a course of study. If a programme requires that a student is to complete pre-requisites or courses/ additional subjects in order to be fully enrolled as a tertiary level student in the institution, the SLB will not fund the period/ year in which the student is completing the pre-requisites. It must be noted that if your acceptance letter indicates that you are “Conditionally Accepted” or you are required to enter into “General Studies” or you can enter the programme “Pending” a grade in a particular subject, you are considered by the SLB to have not fully matriculated and as such will not be funded through the SLB.
Yes. Some students may benefit from a grant (Grant-in-Aid) to assist with school related expenses. Recipients are not required to repayment this grant.
For students studying overseas (i.e., campuses of the UWI) boarding grants are available. These too are non-repayable and assist students with boarding expenses.
Appeals for grants can also be submitted via the Customer Portal account.
The SLB through collaborative efforts is able to offer postgraduate loans to students attending the University of the West Indies, University of Technology, Jamaica, Northern Caribbean University, The Institute of Management Sciences/Florida International University programme and University of New Orleans. Loans are available only to employed students at this time.
The SLB loan offerings are extended to everyone who is interested in pursuing higher level education.
Refer to the Loans tab for more details about each product.
SLB only offers funding for course being pursued locally or regionally (campuses of the UWI St. Augustine and Cave Hill).
The SLB currently has one office located at the Sagicor Sigma Building, 1st, 2nd & 8th Floors 63-67 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5. Despite this, the Students’ Loan Bureau offers an out of town service – “SLB on the Road”. Officers visit different parishes to conduct interviews and to collect documentation relevant to the application process. The dates change annually. The SLB also has a facility offered annually at different institutions where applicants may drop off their documents to the officers stationed there. The institutions are changed annually.
Our motto is ‘In Pursuit of Excellence.’ We aim to continue to provide quality service to all needy qualified (eligible) Jamaica students. We will be doing our best to achieve this mandate.
This is easily done by properly completing the application form, paying the relevant fees and submitting the required documents early.
The tuition is sent to the school as soon as all loan documents for the applicant are properly completed and submitted to the SLB and the respective institution has confirmed registration for the student.
An Approved Tertiary Institution (ATI) is one wherein approval is granted through the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) to offer programmes of study. The UCJ functions essentially as an accrediting, awards and academic development body for degree, diploma and certificate programmes proposed and developed at approved higher education institutions.
The maximum loan amount offered under this loan solution is 1.8 million dollars.
The PostGraduate Loan has an interest rate of 9.5% p.a.
You are given up to 5 years or 60 months to repay the loan.
The principal borrower is the person who is applying for the loan and is required to repay via salary deduction. The principal borrower can apply for only one loan in each academic year.
