ACC orders to re-evaluate Tertiary Student Loan Scheme applications

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has ordered the Department of Higher Education to re-evaluate the applications for the 2013 Tertiary Student Loans and award fresh points to the applicants.

The commission released a four-point statement today, highlighting their findings of the investigations of the loan scheme conducted last year, which was prompted following complaints.

In the statement, ACC noted inconsistencies in evaluating the applications for pilot studies and differences in names of courses announced by the department for law degrees.

Moments before the event, ACC notified the Ministry of Education on December 15 to postpone the hand-over of loans to 250 students selected for 2013 Tertiary Student Loan Scheme.

On December 23, the commission also ordered the Ministry of Education and Department of Higher Education to tighten their criteria to require applicants to indicate an overseas institute where their preferred courses were available, if they were not available locally.