Students whose parents have lost their jobs in the economic slump are seeking financial help from a government loan scheme which they accuse of being similar to a loanshark operation.
Tuition fees of about $21,000 for the first semester have to be paid by next Friday, and applications for financial help had flooded in for more than a week, said Lingnan College's director of student affairs, Rosanna Chan Yuet-ngor.
'We expect more cases to come as the deadline gets closer,' she said.
'Some students said both of their parents had been laid off and they had no money to pay the fees. We appreciate their difficulties and are trying to help.' Mrs Chan said the poor economic situation had driven students to apply to a new non-means-tested loan scheme from the Government - even though the interest rate stood as high as 7.5 per cent.
About 260 students applied in the past two weeks.
Students, however, condemned the scheme, saying the Government was running a loanshark business as the interest rate was three times higher than its grants and loans scheme.
The president of the University of Hong Kong student union, Peter Tang Chui-chung, said students were being forced to borrow from 'the loanshark'. 'The Government should offer more assistance to students. We oppose the high interest rate,' he said.
