The U.S. Education Department has proposed new rules to police the $85 billion student loan industry, it was reported Saturday.

An inspector general, Democratic lawmakers and even some loan-industry officials have criticized the Education Department for lax oversight of student loans.

Under new rules proposed Friday, universities would have to include at least three loan companies on any list of lenders they suggest to students. The new rules also would ban many of the gifts and payments to financial aid officials that lenders have offered to win student loan volume, the New York Times reported.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings formed a task force in April to draw up the rules, which would take effect next summer, if approved.

The Education Department’s inspector general told Congress earlier this week that the department had made “minimal” progress in dealing with complaints about abuse in the nation’s government-backed student loan program.

Information from: www.upi.com

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Sunday, June 3, 2007 at 1:33 am and is filed under Student Loan. Tags: Education News, Financial Aid, Loans, Student, Student Loan, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.