We conduct a survey-based experiment with 2,776 students at a non-profit university to analyze income insurance demand in education financing. We offered students a hypothetical choice: either a federal loan with income-driven repayment or an income-share agreement (ISA), with randomized framing of downside protections. Emphasizing income…

Student loan debt is at record levels in the United States. The negative psychological and financial effects for borrowers are well-documented. This article turns to the individual-level political effects of student loan debt. Rooted in the policy feedback literature, we examine whether the rise in student loan debt is associated with negative…

Beginning in March 2020 and ultimately continuing to September 2023, most student loan borrowers had their required payments on federal student loans paused. For student loan borrowers with limited access to credit, the payment pause provided additional cash-on-hand that may have allowed them to reduce their work hours. Using survey data capturing…

In 2020-2021, 94% of undergraduates in England took out government-backed loans to fund their higher education. The growing and widespread use of student loans in England, mounting student debt, and governments' increasing dependence on tuition fees underwritten by loans to finance public higher education raise important questions which this paper…

The North Carolina Promise (NC Promise) is an education subsidy program that sets in-state tuition at $500 per semester and out-of-state tuition at $2500 per semester for all undergraduates at four campuses of the University of North Carolina (UNC) System campuses applies to all undergraduate students beginning with the Fall 2018 semester. A goal…

The federal government is the lender for the current student loan system, but replacing it with a system that harnesses the advantages of a marketplace of private lending would save $212 billion over the next 10 years while also benefiting students by helping them avoid risky educational choices. Due to ongoing court cases and upcoming regulatory…

The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, specifies a loan origination fee of 1 percent for all Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and a fee of 4 percent for all Direct PLUS Loans for both parent borrowers and graduate and professional student borrowers. Student loan origination fees, the hidden student loan tax, generated…

The valorization of skills in English higher education policy-making is a long-standing refrain, informing both rhetoric and investment from government and shaping university behaviour. Critiques of the 'skills agenda' are equally established, on grounds of its contested evidence base, manner of implementation and even its very definition. This…

In recent years, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has garnered more attention among student loan borrowers in the United States as a potential source of loan relief. However--at least prior to the PSLF Program Overhaul introduced in October 2021--arduous eligibility criteria, opaque communication on the part of the U.S. Department of…

As of 2023, 43.6 million borrowers owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. However, there is another, often overlooked, institutional debt that students may owe their former institutions after stopping out. It is estimated that 6.6 million students owe $15 billion in unpaid balances to their institutions. This institutional debt stems…

The United States (US) airline industry is currently experiencing a pilot shortage that could quadruple between the years 2022-2025 (Baldwin, 2022). Although there is not a single cause for this pilot shortage, one of the reasons is the high cost of entry into the industry(Silk, 2019). For aspiring pilots to enter the aviation and/or airline…

For workers employed in the public and nonprofit sectors, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program offers the potential for full forgiveness of federal student loans for those with 10 years of full-time work experience. A year-long waiver issued by the Department of Education in 2021 to address administrative problems in program access…

Transfer pathways are commonly associated with cost savings to students within the policy world. However, few have ventured to empirically examine whether traveling transfer pathways result in savings for students. Through this article, we report on analyses of this topic drawing on a custom linkage between Toronto District School Board,…

Outstanding federal student loan debt exceeds $1.6 trillion and is owed by about 45 million borrowers. Since taking office, the Biden Administration has taken various actions to address student loan debt. These actions have ranged in scope (both in terms of borrower populations affected and associated modification costs), rationales, and the…

In August 2022, the Department of Education announced that, to address the heightened risk of delinquency and default caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it would provide up to $20,000 of student loan debt relief to borrowers who met certain income thresholds. Borrowers eligible for this relief were to receive up to the full $20,000 in relief if they…