posted Jan 30, 2013, 10:04 PM by Envision Studygroup
[
updated Jan 30, 2013, 10:13 PM by Unknown user
]
Background:
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has offered a low-interest loan to
help students to study overseas for a number of years. Since 2010, some
municipal governments (city/county governments) have launched their own
low-interest loans to target their own residents. As of January 2013, only the
education departments of Taipei City and Changhua County have offered their own
schemes to provide loans for studying abroad.
Summary
The terms, availability, preferred interest rate, and loan limit
vary among cities as well as the degrees that the loan applicant pursues.
Generally speaking, Taipei City's loan program offers better terms than the one
offered by the Ministry of Education. Under Taipei City’s program, the students
pay no interest during their period of study. However, the Taipei City's has
stricter financial requirements to qualify and also has an quota of 1000 seats.
The Changhua County government's scheme has no requirements on the
student’s financial status and the loan limit per student is higher. However,
when compared to the MOE’s program, the Changhua County scheme charges a higher
interest rate and the loan term is also shorter. The Changhua County government
scheme is limited to an annual quota of 150 borrowers.
Requirements:
1. Financial Eligibility for the loan
- Ministry
of Education: annual household income under USD 50K
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government: annual household income under USD
80K
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: no limitation
2. Eligible Programs of Study:
- Ministry
of Education: Masters or PhDs
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government: Masters, PhDs, or professional
certificates (post-secondary programs)
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: Masters or PhDs
3. Loan Limit per Student (NTD: USD rate of 29:1) & Available
loans
- Ministry
of Education: USD 34,500 for masters; USD 69,000 for PhDs (with no quota
on the number of borrowers)
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government:
- USD
34,500 for masters and USD 69,000 for PhDs. Total loans available for
Masters and PhDs is 800
- USD
34,500 for post-associate professional certificate. Total loans available
is 200.
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: USD 69,000 for masters and USD
103,500 for PhDs. Total loans available for Masters and PhD is 150 each
annually.
4. Interest rate during the period of the loan
- Ministry
of Education: yes
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government: no
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: yes
5. Other Costs
- Ministry
of Education: no
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government: no
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: 2% of the loan as the account
management fee.
6. Loan Repayment Terms
- Ministry
of Education: The repayment period is 10 years for master’s students.
During the first 3 years of the loan, the interest on the loan is fully
subsidized. For PhDs, the repayment term is 16 years and the interest is
fully subsidized for the first 5 years of the loan.
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government: Interest rate fully subsidized for
10 years for master and 16 years for PhDs.
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: 10-year repayment term and full
interest subsidy for 2 years. For PhDs, 12-year repayment term and full
interest subsidy for 4 years.
7. Guarantor required
- Ministry
of Education: Yes. There must be one guarantor who is Taiwan Citizen and
spouse is not eligible.
- Department
of Education, Taipei City Government: Yes. There must be one guarantor who
is Taiwan Citizen and spouse is eligible.
- Department
of Education, Changhua County Government: Yes. There must be one guarantor
who is Taiwan Citizen and spouse is eligible.
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