Disabled undergraduates will soon be allowed to study in any of six fields at no charge. San Worain,
deputy secretary-general of the Higher Education Commission, yesterday urged such students to apply promptly for a disabled-person identity card.
Institutions have already been informed about the guidelines to promote higher education for the disabled, he said.
This year's scholarship programme for disabled college and university students is pending a budget allocation from the Education Ministry's Educational Promotion and Development for the Disabled Fund.
The policy on educational support for disabled students will soon be proposed to the Committee for the Promotion of Higher Educational Management for the Disabled.
Institutions will receive subsidies for the tuition and educational expenses of students carrying a disabled-person ID card.
The six eligible groups of study are social science, arts, humanities and education; fine arts and architecture; engineering, science and technology; agriculture; public health, nursing and pharmacy; and medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry.
The rate of financial assistance under this project will be in line with the Student Loan Fund.
San said he could not give details on funding until the education minister, as the committee's chairman, signed the policy announcement.
Universities will have to estimate how much fiscal assistance is required - based on the number of disabled students to be recruited and how much money that would cost - and include it in their annual budget request.
Then they have to submit the names of students admitted each semester and report their academic performances to the committee.
Disabled students should apply for their ID cards now because without one, when the scheme goes into effect, they will not get the right to free education.
