More than 30,000 students have taken advantage of the tertiary education loan scheme and national toppers scholarship in the past five years.

Tertiary Education Loans Board chief executive Bobby Maharaj says the initiative has assisted thousands of students and is urging students willing to study further to take advantage of the schemes.

Maharaj says 2, 952 students have filed their applications so far this year.

He says the board will start processing the applications a day after the Year 13 results are released.

“When the students are applying for the national toppers scholarship it’s important that they also tick the boxes, three choices for TELS, so in case if they are not successful for with the national toppers scholarship automatically the application will be considered for TELS so there is no need for them to apply twice, just one application.”

He has urged students to apply before the 15th of December.