Harvard’s credit union to make international student loans available

Harvard University and the Harvard University Employees Credit Union today (April 15) announced a partnership that will make credit union loans available to international graduate and professional students.

This is the second time in two months that the University has secured a new source of funding after major lenders withdrew from the market for international student loans late last year.

In February, Harvard signed an agreement with JPMorgan Chase to provide the University’s approximately 3,300 international graduate and professional students access to private education loans without requiring a co-signer. International students at Harvard College are eligible for the College’s separate financial aid program.

“Our overall objective is to ensure that a Harvard graduate education remains accessible to talented students regardless of where they live,” said Dan Shore, Harvard’s chief financial officer. “The agreement with the credit union, combined with the recently completed agreement with JPMorgan Chase, creates multiple lending options for our international graduate and professional students at a time of significant uncertainty in the global credit markets.”

In the past, only a handful of lenders provided loans to students from abroad without requiring them to find a U.S. resident who was willing to co-sign the loan. When the financial markets began to fall last year, even those lenders declined to provide such loans, casting uncertainty on the plans of anyone from abroad interested in pursuing an advanced degree on a U.S. campus.

The agreement with the credit union expands the pool of available funds and similarly does not require a co-signer. The credit union and JPMorgan Chase also will offer private loans to domestic students enrolled in graduate and professional programs at Harvard.

“We are pleased to be able to offer assistance to Harvard students from abroad,’’ said Eugene Foley, president and chief executive officer of the credit union. “We also welcome the opportunity to begin providing loans to the broader population of graduate and professional students who study at Harvard.”