China's Ministry of Education has asked each of the Chinese regions to be responsible for offering a state-subsidized loan to students whose permanent residence is in their region and who have been admitted to university this year.
So far, 24 provinces and regions in China have begun to provide educational loans to new college students and the remaining regions are expected to do so by the end of this year.
According to the Ministry of Education, students from poor families can apply for an educational loan at their local educational aid department with their college admission notice and an application form stamped by their village residents' commission or the township civil affairs department. Each student can apply for no more than CNY6,000 loans for each study year. The total term for the loan is ten years plus their full-time study years at college. Ministry of Education says that students don't have to pay the interest for the loan during their college study but they will need to pay the interest for the period after their graduation.
The Ministry of Education has launched two 24-hour hotlines (010-66097980 and 010-66096590) for the educational loan issues. The two lines will be run from 08:00 on August 15, 2009 to 17:00 on September 15, 2009.
It is learned that Chinese universities have enrolled more than six million college freshmen this year, and over 50% of these students are from the rural areas. Previously, poor college students could only apply for the state-subsidized loan from their schools.
