By 1 pm, some eleven thousand transactions had been made in MijnDUO’s brand-new system, said a spokesperson for the Education Executive Agency (DUO). He did not know how many transactions are made on a regular day, but he was sure the site was experiencing a ‘peak’.
The website even warns visitors. “We are currently experiencing extreme busyness at MijnDUO. We may need longer than usual to load your data. Some sections of the website may be (temporarily) unavailable.”
There were a lot of phone calls as well. “The new system takes some getting used to,” says DUO’s spokesperson. “So customers will call us, but we were prepared for that.”
MijnDUO, the website that allows students and former students to manage their student loans and student loan repayments, was offline for the entire month of April due to a large-scale overhaul of the site’s ICT system.
Processed immediately
On the new website, applications and changes are processed and confirmed at once, and students have access to a conveniently arranged overview of their student loan debt: how much of the money they are given is a gift, and how much to they have to repay? In addition, they can make repayments by iDEAL, and (former) students paying off loans can temporarily stop the repayments or adjust the monthly repayment amount as necessary.
In all, 4.8 million people’s data was transferred from the old system to the new one. According to DUO’s spokesperson, the transfer was successful. DUO has not received many complaints from students. “Judging from social media, there were hardly any complaints.” He opined that this was because everyone had received proper information beforehand.
