Government is to explore the possibility of introducing a loan programme to help students fund the cost of further education.

A scheme had existed whereby previous Governments had acted as guarantors for bank loans taken out by cash-strapped students who wished to continue their studies. The agreement was backed up by a $4 million kitty.

According to Education Minister Grant Gibbons, the scheme appears to have been phased out in the mid 1990s under the former Progressive Labour Party administration — and Government is keen to reintroduce it to give students and parents another avenue of potential income.

Speaking in the House of Assembly on Friday evening, Dr Gibbons said: “Going way back into the 1990s ... there was a very strong programme of education loans, in fact there was some $4 million that was in there to guarantee student loans. I’m not quite sure what happened to that but clearly over the last ten or 15 years that programme completely fell apart.

“I’m going to have a look and see if there’s a way to get that programme going again. I understand that there were issues with administration, perhaps with the former Government.

“I don’t know who was responsible, but that was a tremendous benefit to a lot of students who could find a way to get loans that were backed by Government — loans from the banks to be able to afford during their education years a way to get through college. I think that’s something we need to have another look at.

Loans are a popular source of revenue for students in the UK and US. In the UK, loans are interest-free and students do not have to start paying them off until they find work and reach a certain income bracket.

Dr Gibbons said that “more homework needed to be done” before any new scheme was introduced, but Government was keen to put the concept into practice.

“I think we all understand why the Government’s in the position it is right now in terms of having to reduce that budget in education — there simply isn’t the amount of money that was there before,” Dr Gibbons said on Friday.

“There is also a question of what is an appropriate amount of money that needs to be put forward for student loans. There are a lot of scholarships out there, they range from the Bermuda Government Scholarship to a lot of company scholarships. What is the appropriate amount? We all understand that if we had our way in this House we would give as much money as we possibly can but as a consequence of where we find ourselves right now there simply isn’t enough money for every student who wants to go to college as much as we would all like to be able to do that.

“We’re going to see what we can do to see if we can find some additional money but possibly this student loan thing is something that we can have a look at and essentially find out if there’s a way to get that back on track.”

Dr Gibbons also did not rule out a possible increase in funding for Government scholarships.

“The funding — and we’ve certainly said this, it was very clear in the Budget — has been cut from $1.3 million last year down to $1 million this year.

“There is certainly a fair amount of money in there but if we can find a way to ease back to provide more scholarships we will certainly do so.”