Prime Minister Bruce Golding said yesterday that the list of disciplines would soon be announced.

He said that some persons pursuing special skills in the health and agriculture sector would pay only four per cent interest on their student loans starting this year.

The interest rate is moving from 12 per cent.

In his contribution to the Budget Debate yesterday, Golding said: "It is our intention to give special concessions to students pursuing studies in specific disciplines for which a chronic shortage exists within the public sector."

Last month, Golding said his administration would steer the Students' Loan Bureau in a direction where it would be inclined towards areas of study deemed to be critical to national development.

"We are going to offer preferential terms for those areas of study that we feel are in national demand, and we are also going to improve access to those funds," the prime minister said in April.

Golding also said that the current interest rates for student loans were too high and that his government hoped to reduce the interest rates next year.