Student loans harder to get, easier to repay

Both sets of applicants would also required to present proof of their participation in social volunteer activities.
Permanent education secretary Suthasri Wongsaman said the recent meeting of SLF committee resolved to set the criteria and measures as according to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s policy that emphasis that the SLF loan should be difficult to get but easy to repay.
The agency would start with restricting high schools and vocational colleges to those that have operated for at least one academic year, have obtained a certificate from the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa), and have volunteer projects to benefit the society and country, she said.
Higher education institutes wishing to join the SLF would be required to operate for at least one year, to have social volunteer activities, to get its curricular and study programmes approved by the Office of Higher Education Commission (Ohec) and to obtain a certificate from Onesqa, she added.
The SLF meeting also set criteria for the amount of the loan provided to educational institutes, Suthasri said. Institutes must have 40 per cent of debtors repaying their loans, therefore institutes with a large number of debtors failing to repay would get a lower loan quota. The meeting also set the ratio of general education students and vocational education students at 50:50, while university student applicants would have be applied to the ratio of 50 per cent science programmes and 50 per cent humanity programmes.