Unis work to help students over loan cuts
High-level university executives nationwide are seeking ways to help over 6,000 students get loans after the government announced budget amounts lower than last year.
Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) president Professor Dr Ratchata Ratchatanawin said yesterday’s meeting of council members at Sukhothai’s Thammathirat Open University discussed ways to help 6,471 new students get loans for study at university level. The government this year has allocated only Bt6.7 billion to support the student loan scheme. Selected poor students would be the first group affected by the smaller budget.
Several measures were discussed to help university students get loans – such as speeding up repayments by students who previously received loans from this fund. Reducing these debts would produce enough money to provide for the new students. The council will also ask the university to allow students to work in part-time jobs to earn money.
The meeting also agreed with a direct system for university admission. If necessary, students would be required to take standardised tests – allowing them to use scores from these tests to apply for educational institutes.
RELATED