Ramkhamhaeng rector supports proposal to exempt outstanding students from debt

[webfact]

Ramkhamhaeng rector supports proposal to exempt outstanding students from debt

By The Nation

 

 

The rector of the Ramkhamhaeng University has expressed support for the Bhumjaithai Party’s proposal to exempt students with outstanding performance from repaying their debts to the Student Loan Fund.

 

The party announced it would submit a bill to the House to amend the Student Loan Act to allow students who graduate with first-class honours to convert their loans to scholarships so that they would not have to repay their debt to the fund.

 

The bill also seeks to allow students to choose to work for the state instead of repaying the debt and to make the loans from the fund interest free.

 

Wutthisak Larpcharoensup, rector of Ramkhamhaeng Univesrity, said he supports the plan to allow students with first-class honours degrees to convert the loan to a government scholarship. 

 

He said the policy would encourage students to try to develop themselves and achieve their full potential and added that, in his view, the bill should also exempt students who graduate with second-class honours to be exempted from paying the debt.

 

However, he disagreed with the idea of such students choosing to work for the government instead of repaying the debt, pointing out that the government sector has only limited positions and that many students, who do not borrow from the fund, may also want to become government officials.

 

Meanwhile, Wiroj Limkhaisaeng, rector of Rajamangala University of Technology Isan, said he disagrees with the bill, saying he feared in would create educational disparity.

 

Wiroj said it would not be fair to others if students with outstanding performance are let off from repaying the debt and noted that nowadays, most businesses do not want to only hire graduates with outstanding academic results but also look for responsibility and good social skills.

 

Wiroj said he supports the idea to make the student loans interest free because students who have to take out loans usually come from the poor families and paying interest on their loans creates too big a burden on them. He agreed in principle to allow students to choose to work for the government instead of paying the debt but does not think there will be a sufficient number of vacant positions to make this a reality.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30376228

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-09-16

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[tompelli]

Surely first class graduates understand how debt works, or are the government encouraging the "make the first payment, forget the rest" attitude?

 

[phantomfiddler]

A great idea ! except if all the family members are driving Mercs ????

[KKr]

this would be a great incentive for not so wealthy students to work hard and come out ahead of the pack, purely based on their academic achievements.

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

proposal to exempt students with outstanding performance from repaying their debts to the Student Loan Fund.

I wonder how much an "outstanding performance grade would cost" ??

[KKr]

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

I wonder how much an "outstanding performance grade would cost" ??

believe me, they will work for that and should be getting better grades than the paid for.
Did many job interviews with people from countries where grades are available for sale and, from experience, it takes three to five minutes to expose most fakes.

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, KKr said:

believe me, they will work for that and should be getting better grades than the paid for.
Did many job interviews with people from countries where grades are available for sale and, from experience, it takes three to five minutes to expose most fakes.

Yes I agree to a point... some students will work hard to get the grades and hope they will not have to pay the student fees.. which is a goal to aim for.

But there is also the percentage who will buy their way to the top as they do in other occupations of Thailand.

[Chazar]

Great start! but  normal where no one  has or learns any responsibility, coming soon  mortgages, car loans, personal loans and credit  cards  all with a  get out clause by your next vote winning govt, when I say govt I mean undemocratically elected  Junta.

[CharlieH]

Crude remark removed.