Bank of Baroda is viewed as one of the most reliable banks by students to fund their higher education. Founded in the Princely State of Baroda, Gujarat, it is the third-largest nationalised bank in India with more than 132 million customers.

Being a public sector bank, BOB supports the Government's push for educating students by providing education loans to students. There are 6 Bank of Baroda education loan schems that cater to students with different needs. 

This article aims to shed light on the complete details of a typical Bank of Baroda education loan process. 

Bank of Baroda education loan for abroad studies (The Baroda Scholar Scheme): An overview

The Baroda Scholar Scheme is the Bank of Baroda’s premier education loan scheme for abroad studies. Students who have been accepted into universities of various categories all over the world are eligible to apply under this education loan scheme. The universities have been categorized as premier institutions and non-premier institutions based on their overall ranking all over the world.

Here’s a quick overview of the Bank of Baroda Scholar Loan for Study Abroad

Note: Interest rates are subject to change with the change in the market conditions. In order to know about the accurate value of Bank of Baroda abroad education loan interest rate, get in touch with the financial team of WeMakeScholars.

Students who have enrolled into any of the universities mentioned in the list stated by the Bank of Baroda can avail secured education loans of up to INR 1.5 Cr, based on the value of their collateral security. 

Bank of Baroda abroad education loan provides 100% funding to the students listed in the prime universities and upto 90% funding for students not listed in the prime universities. Students who have been admitted into the institutions not mentioned in the Bank of Baroda prime list are allotted a maximum secured education loan of INR 60 Lakhs. This is again dependent on the value of the collateral security being pledged.

Wondering whether your university falls under the prime list? The Bank of Baroda Education Loan premier list institutions are edited every year. To know the university you selected falls under which category, connect with our team at WeMakeScholars. Our financial officer will guide you through the entire loan process. WeMakeScholars is an organization funded and supported by the Government of India that focuses on International Education finance. As this initiative is under the Digital India campaign, it’s free of cost.

Now that the important aspects of the Bank of Baroda education loan scheme for abroad studies have been discussed, let us move on to understand the Bank of Baroda education loan process in detail.

Bank of Baroda study abroad loan procedure

As it may sound as a piece of cake to you but the Government bank education loan process involves a lot of complex steps. Before we get started with the BOB abroad education loan procedure, it is important to bear in mind that when it comes to processing education loan applications, the course of action taken by different banks are different.

 So here’s the Bank of Baroda study abroad loan procedure. 

Step 1: Bank of Baroda Education loan application process

• The first step is similar to any other Government banks. Students have to register for the education loan process online. When students visit the BOB abroad education loan website for the purpose of applying for an education loan, they are further redirected to the Vidyalakshmi education loan portal. Students have to complete the further steps as directed by the rules and regulations mentioned in the portal.
• Filling an application form on the Vidyalakshmi portal is pretty easy therefore students will not find it difficult to complete their application process. Students are provided with multiple options to apply in three different banks on the Vidyalakshmi portal.
• After reaching this stage of the application process, choose Bank of Baroda as one of the options. Depending on the eligibility of the candidate, the online portal allots the respective bank and branch to candidates. However, this part of the Bank of Baroda education loan application process can be tricky, as it is difficult to determine which bank and branch will be allotted to a particular candidate at a time.

Point to remember: Students may find navigating through the Vidyalakshmi education loan portal easy but the tricky part of this portal is that once students submit their application form on the Vidyalakshmi education loan portal, they do not have the option to modify their education loan options unless and until one of the banks with which they have applied to, accepts their application. 

Therefore, it is very important to understand that the education loan requirements may differ from student to student. So, once students have applied online, they are required to connect with their respective banks for further support regarding their loan application. As we deal with education loan applicants on a daily basis, many students have reported us having a tough time dealing with and convincing the bank officials regarding their education loan applications. 

To break the back of the beast, connect with our financial team at WeMakeScholars as they help them bypass a lot of these unnecessary steps in the Bank of Baroda study abroad loan process. To get in touch, request a callback and our team will reach you soon. 

Step 2: Application processing in the bank 

• Once the loan application is received at the respective branches, banks verify the information provided on the application by talking directly with the candidates. Students are given a checklist of the documents to be submitted to the branch. Here, students may be required to visit their present processing bank branch to submit the xerox copy of the required documents like their academic records, co-applicants bank statements, and collateral-related documents. 

Point to remember: There are multiple other documents that are mandated by the banks and may vary from region to region. These documents are required to prove the legality of immovable property. Bank officials usually do not provide any checklist of the documents and demand state and region-specific documents at the last minute. To avoid arranging these documents in a rush, connect with our team at WeMakeScholars. Our financial team will give you the latest checklist of the documents required and will also assist you through the entire education loan process.

• After having successfully verified all the documents, the bank forwards the set of documents provided by the candidate to the processing centers. Now, these processing centers are assigned different names by different banks. In Bank of Baroda, this processing center is called a Special Mortgage Store (SMS). In case, if your loan officer who is processing your loan application happens to use this term, they are basically referring to processing centers.
• After this, the SMS conducts a legal verification of the collateral with the help of a bank-appointed lawyer and monetary valuation by a valuator, also appointed by the bank. Their respective reports are then collected at the SMS and then sent to a Central Processing Center. Further steps are only undertaken once the reports are received at the Central Processing Centers (CPC).
• After successfully verifying the legal and valuation reports by the bank assigned officials, the CPC sanctions the education loan application.
• Voila! Post this process, your education loan is sanctioned successfully.

Step 3: Disbursement process

• The next step in the Bank of Baroda education loan process is the disbursement process. In this phase after the education loan is sanctioned, students are again required to visit the Bank of Baroda for mortgage creation.
• This process simply involves re-verification of the original property documents, before a mortgage account is created. Once the mortgage account has been created, the loan agreement is ready to be signed by candidates and co-applicants.
• The loan applicant and the co-applicants are required to sign the agreement and this marks the end of the Bank of Baroda abroad education loan.
• Post this, your abroad education loan from Bank of Baroda is ready to be disbursed. For disbursement, students are required to submit a disbursement letter to their respective Bank of Baroda branch. They need to mention the preferred method of payment of tuition fees asked by the respective educational institutions in this letter.
• Once banks receive this letter, banks deposit the tuition fees as per the requests made by the students. It will either be disbursed directly to the university’s tuition fee account or via third-party payment software. And for living expenses, banks deposit the money into a foreign travel card.

Step 4: Repayment process

• Any education loan procedure does not end until the loan is repaid entirely and like any other Government banks, Bank of Baroda also offers payment free moratorium period. The moratorium period is defined as the repayment holiday where the student is not obliged to pay anything during the period. It is usually the course duration plus 6 months and can extend upto 1 year. The moratorium period is an exclusive benefit which is not applicable to any other loan category.
• The concept of moratorium period was introduced by government banks after having given due consideration to the fact that students require sufficient time to find employment once their course period gets over.
• This feature is what attracts a majority of students. The education loan repayment tenure granted for Bank of Baroda education loans is up to 15 years excluding the moratorium period.
• So, the student can start the repayment once his moratorium period is over.

With this point, we come to an end of the entire Bank of Baroda education loan process but one of the major drawbacks of processing through Government banks is the delayed education loan process. They take around 1-2 months to process an education loan. Sometimes bank officials directly reject the application of the candidate and do not even mention the reason for the same. This may lead to a delayed and exhaustive experience. 

We at WeMakeScholars aim to help students in every step of the process till the loan is repaid, our expertise in this field makes it possible to tackle every problem faced by students and get the process done in minimum time. Therefore, we recommend you to get in touch with our team if you are looking for a BOB abroad education loan where our financial team will assist you throughout your Bank of Baroda study abroad loan process.