Haitham al-Haddad – Is taking student loans haram for Muslims in the West?

The Prophetic Hadith states clearly the seriousness and danger of Riba “To devour one Dirham (currency) of Riba is worse than committing Zina (adultery and fornication) thirty-six times.” [Ahmad and others].

Another Hadith reads: “Riba consists of seventy-three kinds of evil, and the least of them is like having sex with one’s own mother.” [Ibn Majah , al-Hakim and others].

In the West, specifically in Norway, Muslims can get student loans, where some portion of the loan will be converted into a scholarship if you pass the exams, otherwise it remains a loan. On the loan there is no interest as long as you are a student, but when you have finished your studies interest is added to the loan. Is this loan haram? Would the person who take it be like a man having sex with his own mother?