Development of Student Loan Programs, Characteristics of Student Loans, Evaluation of International Experience, International Issues

Student Loans in an International Context

Student loans are increasingly used to provide financial assistance for students in higher education, in both industrialized and developing countries. The need for financial assistance to enable students from low-income families to meet direct and indirect costs of education (tuition fees, books, and living expenses) is widely recognized, and the case for student support programs to ensure equality of opportunity, equity, and social justice is rarely questioned. What is a matter of dispute however, is whether financial support should be provided by governments, private agencies, employers, or institutions, and whether it should be in the form of scholarships, bursaries, grantseither available to all students or means-tested (i.e., targeted by financial need)or repayable loans. Fierce controversy has surrounded the idea of student loan programs since their inception.

National student loan programs were first established in the 1950s in countries as diverse as Colombia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Japan, and the United States check these guys out. Read more