In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

Student loans and debts

(Yale Daily News) The U.S. government is urging universities to convert its private bank-based student loan system to one that is federally funded. Since the legislation was proposed over a year ago, Yale University has expressed reluctance to adopt the proposed changes, arguing that students will experience lower quality service and fewer loan benefits. Competition among private lenders gives students access to an array of borrower benefits, which are expected to disappear under the government’s program, under which Direct Loans would become the sole student loan lender. The legislation is expected to be approved by the Senate, and would require all colleges to switch to the Direct Loans program by July 1, 2010.

1.

Education Shouldn't be a Debt Sentence

Canadian Federation of Students
The Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students-Services is made up of students from more than 80 university and college students' unions across Canada. It enables students' unions to provide student owned and operated services such as Travel CUTS, the International Student Identity Card, the Student Work Abroad Program, and the National Student Health Network. The CFS website has a running tally of the dollar amount of the student loan debt. It offers information on the impact of rising tuition fees and student debt such as debt accumulation being a barrier to returning to post-secondary education. Canadian research found that as student debt rose from less than $1000 to $10,000 per year, program completion rates plummeted from 59 per cent to 86 per cent. In Canada, student loan repayment begins almost immediately, so graduates are forced to make employment decisions based on what can best contribute to loan repayment.

2.

Treatment of Student Loans Under Canadian Bankruptcy Law*

Library of Parliament
The Library of Parliament website offers information on the Canadian Student Loan Program and the history of the program, Bankruptcy Law, Debt and Bankruptcy statistics for student loans and issues and proposals for change. They inform that in the past decade, student loan borrowings increased, as did the number of bankruptcies involving student loans. During the second half of the 1990s, changes to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act made student loan debt non-dischargeable in a bankruptcy if the bankruptcy occurred within ten years after studies ended. The period has recently been reduced to seven years, but it is still the subject of considerable debate. It relates to the CFS site as The Canadian Federation of Students has launched a court challenge to the rule under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

3.

American Student Debt Statistics

American Student Assistance
The American Student Assistance offers statistics the number of undergraduates in the U.S. and the amount and types of loans students incur. They write that undergraduates are carrying record-high credit card balances. They use multiple sources to get their information, like, The College Board (Trends in Student Aid – 2008) which supplies that in 2007 – 2008, lenders provided about $17 billion in private loans, a 592 per cent increase from a decade earlier. They offer tables showing the percentage of students borrowing loans and the average amount of cumulative debt per borrower among graduate students according to degree program and a table on loans among minority students. American Student Assistance is based in Boston and is a non-profit, federally funded student loan guarantor. They provide counseling and education to borrowers throughout the loan experience.

4.

Ten Things You Need to Know... About Financial Support for Post-Secondary Students in Canada

Canadian Millennium Scholarship
The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation provides students with opportunities to pursue the post-secondary education they need to prepare themselves for the future. Since 2000, the Foundation has delivered more than half a million bursaries and scholarships worth more than $2.2 billion to students across Canada. This website offers information on what the Millennium Scholarship has done for Canadian students and Universities since 2000 and information such as fewer than one in five undergraduates enrolled in Canada’s major universities receive need-based support from their institution. They also write that students now receive more in need-based student financial assistance than ever before.>

5.

A Guide to Student Debt

The Pew Charitable Trusts
Based out of Washington and Philadelphia, the Pew Charitable Trusts partners with donors, public and private organizations and concerned citizens who are commitment to improve society. They offer information like in the early 1990s, less than half of graduates left college with loans to repay; now, by the time they graduate, nearly two-thirds of students at four-year colleges and universities have student loan debt. They provide reports on student debt trends in the U.S., A guide to what college students repaying their loans need to know about the changes to the process and they issue briefs on the lack of access to federal loans by community college students and links to press releases on college board trends and students blocked from federal student loans.