Higher Education Minister Ali Haidar Ahmed has blamed foreign universities for delays in issuing stipends to government-sponsored students abroad.

Students regularly take to social media to complain about the government's delay in issuing their stipends.

Speaking at a press conference at the President's Office yesterday (March 4), Haidar said efforts were being made to improve the payment of funds.

"When the invoice comes from the universities, it is a week before the deadline. So there are some difficulties in meeting the deadline. That is probably the biggest problem with payment delays," Haidar said.

However, he said the payment process is now better than before and stipends are sometimes paid two weeks in advance.

The Higher Education Minister has previously blamed students for the government's failure to issue stipends regularly.

He said it was caused by students' failure to complete the required information and documents.

There are currently 1,740 student loan recipients and 602 scholarship winners.