Beaufort County Community College is no longer participating in the Federal Direct Student Loan program, a change made official on July 1.

The college will not initiate any more of these student loans, and the Office of Financial Aid has notified prospective students of the changes.

Direct Loans are low-interest loans designed to help students pay for college and are provided by the United States Department of Education.

Barbara Tansey, president of BCCC, announced the decision in a March press release, saying it was due to an increase in the college’s default rate to 29.1 percent.

The default rate details the percentage of students who are not able to repay the federal loans. Colleges can face sanctions and are required to write plans for how to reduce the rate if it reaches 30 percent. They can also lose other kinds of federal aid money if their default rate reaches 40 percent.

The Department of Education tracks student defaults for three years after leaving the college.

According to the press release, the community college will still offer other types of financial aid, such as veteran’s benefits, Pell Grants and private scholarships through the Beaufort County Community College Foundation.

For a student attending the college whose parents have no other dependents living with them, the college budgets about $12,700 of financial aid per student, although depending on the number of other dependents in a home, the college may budget around $17,500.

“The decision to drop out of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program was not taken lightly and is the result of much soul-searching by BCCC’s administration and Board of Trustees over the past year,” Tansey said in the March press release.