The University of Chicago is offering cash advances and other assistance to thousands of its graduate students after losing one of its major lending partners, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The state-chartered commission has found itself unable to renew its line of credit, due to the current economic conditions, the Chicago Tribune reported today. That’s forced an end to its “school as lender” relationship with the university, leaving some 3,000 students, or about a third of its graduate enrollment, suddenly needing a new lender, the newspaper said.

“The majority of our students will be able to get loans from other providers,” the university’s dean of students, Kimberly Goff-Crews, told the Tribune. But, she said, “they will probably have to pay fees.”

School as lender is an option in which graduate schools lend money directly to their students, then quickly sell the loans to a partner loan company for a profit. The federal government has already been phasing out the program, in response to concerns that it constitutes an improper kickback to colleges by lenders to the disadvantage of the students.

University of Chicago officials have said that students who have difficulties finding new loans before the start of the fall semester can obtain a cash advance from the university to cover living expenses, the Tribune reported. —Paul Basken