Mongolian students to get interest-free loans

ULAN BATOR, Feb.8 (Xinhua) -- The Government of Mongolia will remove interest rates from its student loans, the Mongolian government said in a press statement on Wednesday.

As a result, over 35,000 students will get interest-free loans, which can be repaid after graduation. The interest rate of the loans was five percent before the decision was made.

To apply for the loans, students must take more than 10 courses in a semester. The loans will not cover the cost of retaking any course due to unsatisfactory grades. Moreover, the minimum grade required is 2.8 for Bachelor's degree and 3.2 for Master's and Doctoral degrees.

Tuition fees are a big financial burden for most of the country's households with average monthly income of 700,000 -- 800,000 tugrik (290-330 U.S. dollars)

In Mongolia, students need to pay two million tugrik on average annually for a Bachelor's degree, while a Master's degree costs 2.5 million tugrik per year on average. Enditem