Science Students To Be Get Bigger Loans In Coming Academic Year

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Science students to be get bigger loans in coming academic year

By Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

Loan Fund seeks to 50/50 balance for science and arts

University students in some science and arts-related fields that are short in numbers will be allowed higher loans in the coming 2011 academic year, according to Sumate Yamnoon, secretary-general of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec).

Students in medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry will be allowed loans up to Bt200,000, up from Bt150,000 per year.

Others doing public health, nursing and pharmaceutical study would be able to get loans up to Bt90,000, a rise from Bt80,000 per year. Those doing architecture and arts courses would get loans up to Bt70,000, up from Bt60,000 per year.

Students in other fields short on numbers would get loans up to Bt60,000, while those in popular fields would get loans of up to Bt50,000 a year, he told The Nation last week.

A meeting last Tuesday looked at new loan conditions for the 2011 academic year for the Student Loans Fund (SLF); participants agreed to boost the amount for most loans.

The moves were in line with an attempt by the SLF to increase the ratio of students in scientific fields and in social science to 50/50, in response to the country's needs for graduates from scientific fields.

SLF manager Thada Martin said about 890,000 students got loans last academic year, half a million of them at universities. But only 35 per cent of students at university were in science fields, while 65 per cent were doing social science subjects.

The SLF came up with the idea earlier this year. It is also trying to raise the proportion of loans for students doing vocational study from 35 to 60 per cent, and to cut the proportion of student borrowers in general education from 65 to 40 per cent.

"Graduates from science-related fields have more job opportunities than others in social science fields. Also, vocational students can find jobs easily as industry faces a shortage of vocational personnel," Thada explained. "Being able to get a job quickly, they will be able to pay back the loans on a payback schedule not so late."

So far, SLF has provided loans to around 3.7 million people. Some of them are studying and others have graduated.

About 75 per cent of borrowers who were due to pay back the loans - 2.3 million people - had paid back around Bt30 billion. This had risen from 68 per cent in 2007, Thada said.

Apart from the loan ceiling adjustment, SLF would also adjust allocations for loan quotas.

Sumate said the new criteria for loan quotas, which previously gave weight to existing borrowers at 82.5 per cent, would be cut to 60 per cent. The 2 per cent loan quota allocated by the government to higher education institutions in the four southern provinces would also be cut to 1 per cent. The quota given to universities in poor areas would be cut from 5.5 per cent to 4 per cent.

The loan-repaying ratio of those graduating from universities, which was previously set at 5 per cent, would now be 15 per cent, hence a university which had a high number of alumni repaying debts would also get a higher loan quota. Internal assessment results of education in the 2010 academic year following Ohec's criteria would be given weight at 20 per cent, he said.

SLF will spend Bt39 billion on loans for 930,000 students in the 2011 academic year.

-- The Nation 2011-04-18