Government Student Loan 2011

There have been many changes in the government student loan over the years. This even includes the Student Loan and Student Allowance eligibility criteria which was announced by the Government on Thursday 20 May 2010 and is applicable in 2011.

Changes seen in government student loan in 2011

• The government student loans are available online from February 1, 2011 with more loans being offered to vocational and science-related students in the secondary school level. The new ratio between vocational and general students is likely to be 60% to 40% whereas that between science-related and social science is about 50:50 during the mid-May. The new website being launched from February 1 is www.studentloan.or.th.
• There are about 706,652 loans available to be taken up with about 290,741 new loans available for successful applicants. Those who apply for it need to register for further loans with those who are new must pre-register to obtain the loan amount. Through this amendment in the government student loans availability, it is expected that more students will enroll for vocational and science-related courses in the secondary level due to their growing need in job markets.
• There have been changes to Student Loan and Student Allowance eligibility criteria which were announced by the Government on Thursday 20 May 2010. The changes are applicable from 1 January 2011 with the student loan administration fees changing considerably. Through this, the current StudyLink administration fee will be renamed as the establishment fee and will increase from $50 to $60. This fee will be charged every time you opt for a new loan account. Apart from this, the other changes include an introduction of $40 annual administration fee towards Student Loans that are transferred to Inland Revenue.
• Statistics also indicate that the number of students defaulting on federal student loans is quite high. The US Department of Education is sure that it can recover as much as about 85% of the defaulted federal loan dollars based on the existing value after clearing the payment for companies involved in collecting the loans and other expenditure.
• Based on the figures provided by the White House budget for fiscal 2011, the federal government expects gross recovery of between $1.10 and $1.22 for every dollar of defaulted student loans. It also indicates that about $49.9 billion of Federal Family Education Loan and Federal Direct Lending Program loans are also in default.

Though there have been a lot of changes in Federal student loans over a period of time, it is still the one of the most sought after forms of loans due to its low interest rate and easy repayment schedule.