Pool of institutions for which students can take education loans will not get smaller: HRD sources

The pool of eligible institutions for which students can take education loan to pursue professional or technical courses will not get smaller due to any change in norms, HRD Ministry sources said on Monday.

The sources also claimed that the notification about the revision of norms was released in April last year and no fresh change has been made.

The Congress Monday accused the Modi government of "punishing" lakhs of economically weaker students by putting "obstacles" in the eligibility criteria to avail education loans for pursuing professional or technical courses.

The party's attack came after a media report claimed that the pool of eligible institutions for which students can take education loans to pursue professional or technical courses has become smaller.

The report, citing the latest set of guidelines issued by the HRD Ministry, said the eligibility for the model educational loan scheme of the Indian Banks' Association is restricted to students enrolling for professional and technical courses in NAAC-accredited institutions of national importance and centrally-funded technical institutions.

"The notification was issued in April 2018 and no fresh guidelines have been issued in this regard. The 2018 guidelines also will not impact any opportunities for students and the pool of eligible institutions will not get smaller," a source said.

The guidelines are part of the Central Sector Interest Subsidy Scheme (CSIS), 2009, which was revised in 2018.

According to the revised guidelines, "the scheme is adopted by all Scheduled Banks and is linked with the existing Model Educational Loan scheme of the lndian Banks' Association, and restricted to students enrolled in professional, technical courses only from NAAC accredited institutions or professional, technical programmes accredited by NBA or lnstitutions of National lmportance or Central Funded Technical Institutions (CFTls)".

"Those professional institutions or programmes, which do not come under the ambit of NAAC or NBA, would require approval of the respective regulatory body like Medical Council of lndia for medical courses, Nursing Council of lndia for nursing courses and Bar Council of lndia for law," the guidelines read.