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.