Many higher education students combine their study with a job on the side instead of taking up a loan. This paper examines the factors underlying this apparently myopic behaviour. We find that standard economic factors explain observed borrowing decisions to some extent. Students with easier access to financial resources borrow less often.…

This publication is intended for financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the Application and…

Congress has passed a bill that would reauthorize the Higher Education Act. Now five years overdue, the new act created many programs and requirements for colleges and universities. Given all the time and effort that went into it, do aspects of the final legislation fall short? What key measures have been left out? In this article, six policy…

The student-loan industry seems to have broken new ground, which raises a red flag after the recent investigation of the private-loan industry by Andrew M. Cuomo, New York State's attorney general. Last June "The Chronicle" reported that in Cuomo's testimony before Congress, he compared the industry to the Wild West, characterizing it as a bastion…

The British system of student loans has a zero real rate of interest, less than it costs the government to borrow the money. This paper discusses the problems that arise from interest subsidies in the UK system of student loans; systems in other countries, for example Australia and New Zealand, face similar problems. The topic appears to be narrow…

Although many strategies are proposed to reduce the opportunity gap in higher education between and within countries, student loans with cost recovery measures are often preferred during times of fiscal constraint. This study briefly reviews the benefits and challenges of student loans over other forms of financial aid and presents the case for…

This article conducts a meta-analysis of results of studies by Andrieu (1991), DeAngelis (1998), and Liseo (2005) to assess changes over time in the effects of financial aid and other factors on graduate student persistence. A descriptive review of the studies finds that combination aid packages encouraged persistence in 1987 (Andrieu, 1991),…

As the healthcare landscape in West Virginia evolves, West Virginia's health professions programs are working closer together than ever to improve citizen's health and access to care. In particular, the state's three academic health centers, the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, the West Virginia School of Osteopathic…

Nevada's rate of default on college loans is among the highest in the nation. At the time of this study, there were no research studies on defaulters in the state of Nevada. The present study was designed for initial exploration regarding the relationship between various kinds of student factors and default rates from institutions at the Nevada…

As more countries are planning to inaugurate or enlarge student loan schemes, much of the debate is over the question of the optimal form of the repayment obligation: specifically, whether it should be according to a fixed schedule of payments or a percentage of earnings or income. This paper argues that the current fascination with income…

By explicitly naming education as one of three top priority areas in his first joint congressional address and in his first federal budget proposal, President Barack Obama is putting considerable political weight--and even more money--behind the agenda he laid out during his campaign. Certain themes he struck in the February 24…

This paper presents the Federal Student Aid Annual Report for 2010. Federal Student Aid experienced an extraordinary year in 2010. The passage and enactment of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 ushered in sweeping reforms to the federal student financial assistance programs, resulting in tens of billions of dollars in…

These tables show undergraduate Stafford loan borrowing rates and average Stafford loan amounts from 1989-90 to 2007-08, using data from six separate administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS): NPSAS:90, NPSAS:93, NPSAS:96, NPSAS:2000, NPSAS:04, and NPSAS:08. The estimates that appear in these tables reflect the newly…

The Thai higher education sector has expanded quickly during the past decade, making a transition from an elitist to a mass institution. A driving force behind the expansion was believed to be the Student Loan Fund (SLF), introduced in 1996. During the first 10 years of its operation, the SLF has lent to more than 2.6 million students, with the…

Twenty years ago, a U.S. Senate aide walked into a bank in Maine and saw a sign that read "Take out a student loan today, get a toaster." The aide, concerned that students would be tempted to take out loans they did not need, drafted legislation barring lenders from offering "inducements" to borrow. That language was added to the Higher Education…