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With annual university tuition well over W10 million, the government decided to grant government scholarships to all university students from families on welfare from next year (US$1=W1,264). The amount will be based on the average annual tuition of national universities, which is around W4.4 million. On-campus work scholarships will be increased from current W2 million a year to W3 million. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced the changes on Monday.
According to the ministry, scholarships for welfare recipients, which were originally to be phased in from 2011, will go to everyone eligible from next year. Under the current system, only those entering the first year of university were eligible for the scholarship. The number of beneficiaries will be around 52,000, accounting for 2.6 percent of the total number of university students. On-campus work scholarships will be given to an additional 30,000 students next year, bringing the total number of recipients to 36,500.
The interest on student loans funded by the government will be cut from the second semester this year, from 4.65 percent to 3.8 percent based on a household income of W17.22 million to 32.77 million. Interest for the students from families with a household income of W32.73 million to W44.73 million, which is currently 6.65 percent, will be cut to 6.3 percent.
Lim Jun-hee, the director of the Scholarship and Welfare Division of the Education Ministry, said, ¡°The government decided to make a huge expansion on the amount of student loans because it is resolved to leave nobody out of education because of financial hardships.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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