Russian students will give loans for higher education - up to 140 thousand rubles

The Government of the Russian Federation approved on Thursday the draft concept of state support for educational lending, and during 2007-2010 an experiment will be conducted to provide such support. Federal universities will participate in the experiment.

The concept of an experiment on the issuance of educational loans was developed by the Ministry of Education and Science, led by Minister Andrei Fursenko. According to him, it is supposed to provide three types of loans.

The main one will be issued for a higher education (up to 140 thousand rubles per year), additional - for additional education (about 70 thousand rubles), as well as the accompanying - to accommodate or satisfaction of life needs. The amount of such a loan is expected to be an average of 4.5 thousand rubles per month.

The exact amount of the related loan will be determined in relation to a particular region. The size of the loan should not exceed the amount of the average living wage in this region per year.

It is planned that during the experiment no more than 2.5 thousand loans will be issued for each of these three types of lending, Interfax reports. “In general, it is planned to spend 650 million rubles from 2007 to 2009 for these purposes,” he said. According to the Minister, the volume of warranty obligations of the state for the period of the experiment in 2007-2010 will amount to 650 million rubles.

Fursenko said that loans will be repaid within 10 years after graduation. If the student is not able to pay off the loan, then he will be given the opportunity to repay the state, subject to the development of at least three years in the specialty in public services.

"The interest rate on loans will be determined at the competition of bank banks," Fursenko said. "The volume of state support will be 10% of the amount of loans issued excluding interest," the minister said. He believes that a loan rate of 12%is currently acceptable.

He said that now banks provide similar commercial loans for education at 16-19% per annum in rubles and 10-14% when issuing a loan in foreign currency.

Medvedev: Loans should also be given to study at foreign universities

During the meeting, the head of the Ministry of Industry, Viktor Khristenko, proposed not to be limited to federal universities during the experiment. According to him, students should be able to choose an educational institution, including foreign. Khristenko believes that, if desired, students could study with the involvement of such loans both in Oxford and Cambridge.

This proposal was supported by the chairman at the meeting First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. "It will be largely federal universities, but you can not close the door for non -state educational institutions," he said. In this regard, according to the First Deputy Prime Minister, in the process of the experiment, non-state Russian educational institutions may also get into the number of participants.

Medvedev recalled that the law providing for loans for education was adopted back in 1992. However, according to him, the mechanism of educational lending has not yet been implemented, first of all, for economic reasons. "Today we are prepared to start experimental testing of this design," Medvedev said.

Medvedev also noted that "it is unacceptable to reduce the number of budget places in universities during the experiment."