The private student credit foundations have financed the education of 130,000 university students in all sorts of studies and career paths over the past 30 years. Meanwhile, the public sector is proposing to assist 100,000 students over the next four years with the introduction of the Student Credit Card via the Banco de Reservas de la Republica Dominicana, the commercial bank of the Dominican government.
The credit cards will be authorized by the Ministry of Higher Scientific and Technical Education. According to the Listin Diario, the credit cards will pay just 3.5% APR, nearly six times less than the current APR on student loans administered by the different foundations. There is nearly one billion pesos available for the national student loan programs, and one third of the money comes from government and private foreign sources. The most used source of student credit is Fundapec, which was started in 1967 and has helped 75,000 students to study a university or high school degree. The loan portfolio is currently RD$548 million and receives assistance from the USAID. The second largest student credit program is the one run by the PUCMM, which was the first one in the Dominican Republic and started in 1962. The student loans are only for students that have a high school average of 80 or above and that can maintain a college average of 2.5 on the 4.0 scale.
Both institutions have very high loan recovery rates.
There are 35 institutions of higher learning that are qualified to receive student loans for courses of study.