According to a government order, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia will send budget allocations in the amount of 1.097 billion rubles to banks and other credit organizations to reimburse part of the costs of educational loans to citizens enrolled in domestic universities. In total, these funds will subsidize more than 145 thousand preferential loans for students.
A state-supported educational loan is one of the most profitable in the country today. In 2020, the rate on such loans was reduced to 3 percent per annum. The difference between the preferential and market rates is reimbursed by the state to banks. The big advantage is that during the entire period of study and 9 months after its completion, only interest can be paid on the loan, and most of the loan can be repaid within 15 years after completion of studies.
“State-supported educational loans allow Russians to study without a significant financial burden on the family budget. This provides a fundamental opportunity to concentrate on studying and not on paying off debts,” said the Russian senator, head of the supervisory board of the Agency’s Social Projects Support Fund, speaking to RG Strategic Initiatives Olga Epifanova. “For students, student loans open up the opportunity to receive an education at the best universities and help form a personality motivated by higher professional achievements.”
The benefits of such loans are obvious: universities receive students, students get the opportunity to study, agrees Tatyana Belyanchikova, associate professor of the Department of Global Financial Markets and Fintech of the Russian Economic University G.V. Plekhanova. “The main danger for borrowers when obtaining such loans is the moment when the interest rate increases in case of deduction (of their own free will or due to poor academic performance) to the market level, and not every family can afford it,” the expert told RG.
The loan is granted for secondary vocational and higher education at accredited universities and colleges. It is quite possible to obtain it; according to some estimates, the approval rate for such applications by banks is 85 percent.
“There is a demand for state-supported education loans in Russia,” says Olga Epifanova. “For example, Sberbank data says that if in 2021 it issued about 25 thousand such loans, then in 2022 the figure had doubled, and in 2023 – almost tripled.”
The demand for educational loans will grow, Tatyana Belyanchikova is sure. “The popularization of loans can be facilitated by a wider use of the so-called supplementary loan – for textbooks, housing, etc. This type of loan is declared in the state program, but so far (according to various studies) some banks try to avoid it. In any case, the program can be assessed very positively, and with proper knowledge of its existence, the volume and amount of funds issued can be multiplied,” the expert concluded.
