The government is mulls a scheme to provide interest subsidy on loans taken by poor students for pursuing professional courses in India, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Under the 'educational loan scheme' of Indian Bank's [Get Quote] Association, "the government is considering providing interest subsidy on the loans taken by students belonging to non-creamy layer to ensure that nobody is denied professional education," minister of state for human resource development D Purandeswari said in a written reply.

Her reply came in response to apprehensions raised in the House about the exorbitant fees being charged by private institutes.

The members sought to know whether higher education especially in medical engineering has become costly for lower and middle class population.

Admitting that fees charged for professional courses by unaided and self-financing institutions is 'known to be relatively higher' than charged by publicly funded institutions, she said a committee had also been constituted to look into this. Its recommendations are under consideration.

The committee, set up in 2007 by UGC, has come out with regulations with regards to admission and fee for self-financing private professional institutions, including deemed-to-be-universities, the minister said.

The Supreme Court in its earlier judgement had also directed that state governments should set up in each state a committee to approve/fix the fee which can be charged by an institute.