2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHTEEN - Education (§§ 1 — 3510-3520) › PART III - Educational Activities Generally (§§ 861-866 — 1597b) › Chapter 61 - Scholarships (§§ 861-866 — 910v) › § 898 - Scholarships in medicine, odontology or veterinary science—Agreement to render professional services

Scholarship. — Is defined as the sum of money granted free of charge and exempted from repayment, to a student of medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine who meets the requirements established by the Committee, through regulations. The Committee is authorized to establish the parameters, interest and surcharges, if any, for the purpose of recovering the moneys adjudicated in scholarships under §§ 896-899a of this title, of those candidates who, once said assistance has been granted, fail to comply with any of the requirements established by the Committee.
Loan. — Is defined as the sum of money adjudicated to a meritorious student selected by the Committee, who meets the minimum requirements established in § 827 of this title.
The financial assistance granted as a loan shall be governed according to the terms and conditions established by the Committee through regulations, with the advice of the Interest Rates and Financing Charges Regulating Board, as provided by §§ 998 et seq. of Title 10. This financial aid granted as a loan shall be executed through a contract between the borrower-beneficiary or his/her representative with patria potestas, and the Dean of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. The contract shall be renewable from year-to-year, for a maximum of the number of academic years prescribed to normally complete the curriculum for the study of the discipline in question, pursuant to the academic proficiency and compliance of the borrower’s requirements, as established by the Committee through regulations.
The repayment of the loan and its interest shall not exceed the maximum term of one hundred and twenty (120) months, countering from the date said debt is exigible. The Committee is authorized to establish, through regulations, a lesser term for the repayment of the loan, based on the amount loaned and the beneficiary’s ability to pay.
Immediately upon the approval of this act, the Committee shall communicate institutionally, through the Dean of the Medical Sciences Campus, to the schools of Veterinary Medicine with which he has a contract for room for Puerto Rican students, of the settlement of said accounts on the date the effectiveness each contractual case is to finalize. It is provided that the Committee has the means to honor the payment of the contracts as each one becomes due.
Provided, That failure to comply with the contractual terms shall only be allowed in cases of permanent and irreversible physical disability of the borrower-beneficiary, duly confirmed by the Dean of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, or by the death of the borrower-beneficiary. The ceasing of studies shall bind the borrower and the guarantor to repay all moneys received as a loan plus the corresponding interest, according to the terms and conditions established by the Committee through regulations to such effect.
History —June 5, 1948, No. 17, p. 56, § 3; May 30, 1975, No. 32, p. 69; Nov. 29, 1978, No. 8, p. 695, § 1; Jan. 6, 1999, No. 7, § 3.