《TAIPEI TIMES》 Cabinet widens subsidies to help students’ expenses

EQUALITY: Legislators across party lines agree on enacting measures to address the increasing burdens of receiving an education, the education minister said

By Chung Li-hua and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

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The Cabinet yesterday approved a subsidy scheme for financially disadvantaged students enrolled in private universities or high schools to help cover tuition fees and other expenses.

The scheme also waives high-school and vocational high-school tuition for eligible students.

It offers an annual subsidy of NT$35,000 （US$1,126） to people studying for a bachelor’s degree, including the final two years of junior colleges.

About 634,000 students are expected benefit from the program, the Executive Yuan said.

An ancillary measure expands eligibility for a waiver scheme, allowing students from households with an annual income of NT$700,000 to NT$900,000 to waive NT$15,000 in tuition and other expenses.

Previously, only students from families with an annual income of NT$700,000 or less were eligible for a fixed waiver of NT$20,000.

A second ancillary measure extends the waiver to those in the second and third years of comprehensive high-school education and from households with annual income of more than NT$480,000.

This would effectively waive tuition for all high-school students, the Ministry of Education said.

A third ancillary measure would relax regulations for people taking out loans for education and reduce or waive the interest for said loans, according to the proposed changes.

Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung （潘文忠） said the plan had been discussed for a long time.

Legislators across party lines have agreed that the government should provide long-term measures to address the increasing burdens of receiving an education, Pan said.

Pan’s comments seemed to be an attempt to distance the scheme from politics, as the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai （賴清德）, last week proposed measures to close the tuition and expense gap between private and national universities.

The average tuition and other expenses for attending university totals about NT$50,000 annually per person.

The ministry has proposed subsidizing NT$35,000, or nearly 70 percent, of the tuition fees, because nearly two-thirds of all students in the nation are enrolled in private universities and almost 80 percent of them come from disadvantaged families, Pan said.

The scheme would have no “anti-rich” clauses and everyone would be eligible, Pan said, citing universal right to education.

The subsidies are expected to take effect in February next year and would cost the government NT$21.9 billion, he said.

The ministry would ensure that the funds originally earmarked for higher education are not affected, he said.

This would become a regular expense item for the ministry, Pan added.

Education groups said the policy would contribute to closing the tuition gap between national and private universities, and is a step toward making higher education accessible to all.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES