China's Guangdong
Province will open a Website Wednesday for needy students to
apply for education loans, a provincial college education
conference was told Tuesday.
The conference was told that education loans were already available
for the province's 59 higher-learning institutes, including 18
vocational schools and three private schools.
As of July this year, more than 26,000 students had obtained loans
totaling 343 million yuan (US$41 million). The government has
provided 4.68 million yuan in interest subsidies.
But the figure represented only half the number of needy students
who had applied, the conference was told.
A college student requires at least 8,000 yuan for a school year,
including tuition and accommodation, but the average annual income
of rural residents in Guangdong was only about 4,000 yuan. The
annual income of some farmers in underdeveloped areas is only about
2,000 yuan.
Vice Governor Li Ronggen told the conference that the government
would set aside money for education loans. Private schools will
receive the same interest subsidies as public schools.
The government would set aside 10 percent of the total tuition fees
as subsidies for needy students, Li said.
In another development, the nation made some changes to the
original education loan policy.
Students will have to pay off their loans in six years instead of
four years, an extension of two years. The government will continue
to provide interest subsidies to students pursuing post-graduate
studies.
While they are at school, students will receive subsidies totaling
100 percent of the interest instead of 50 percent.
(Shenzhen Daily September 8, 2004)