Fourteen thousand students nationwide will lose their Pell Grants and another 1.3 million will have their grants reduced in 1990-91 as a result of federal budget cuts.

Robert Evans, University director of financial aid, said the Department of Education announced that students who have the highest financial need will not lose any grant money.

However, students who received grants of less than $250 this year will not receive an award for 1990-91, and students who received awards of $250 to $2,100 will have their awards reduced by some amount next year, Evans said.

The reductions will range from $4 to $155 depending on the student's financial need, Evans said, adding the cuts will average $50.

Evans said the number of University students affected by the cuts in the Pell Grant program is unknown at this time, but nearly 12,000 Penn State students currently receive these grants.

Evans said the cuts present a problem because no other program will receive an increase in funding.

As an alternative to the grant, Evans said students should apply for the Stafford Federal loan. Students who lose some of their Pell Grants will find their loan eligibility increased, he said.

Budget cuts have already resulted in funding reductions of three other student aid programs. The cuts announced last week will cause 400 Penn State students to lose some part of their aid.

The Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, the College Work-Study Employment program, and the Perkins Loan program all lost partial funding when Congress enacted the Omnibus Reconciliation Act. The act released some of the funds which had been frozen since October of 1989, when Congress failed to settle on the appropriation funds for the 1990 fiscal year.

John Ebersole, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, said PHEAA does not anticipate taking any special action to compensate for the loss of federal funding.

"Fortunately, we were able to continue the non-subsidized loan program, and we raised the (state) grant maximum award," Ebersole said.

Nearly 20,000 of the neediest recipients of the Pennsylvania State Grant award received increases of $100 this spring, Ebersole said.