Partner Article

What’s the future for Students’ Loan Debt?

The record amount of $1 trillion is the current debt of the students, studying in the USA. The report of Forbes (2013) has shown that the total debt accounts for nearly $ 100,000 debt on each student, who has taken loan to complete their higher education. The troubling fact is that nearly $125 billion has been added to the overall debt in the first two quarters of the current year. This means that the situation of student loan will become further worse in the coming years.

The foremost issue that adds to this problem is the high fees of educational institutes providing higher education. It is obvious that children belonging from low and middle class families will not be able to afford the cost of higher education, and will opt for institutional and governmental loans. As the number of students registering in higher degree programs increases, the amount of debt increases proportionally. Harris Denhart sheds light on the fact that students graduating with a huge amount of loan to pay back are unable to pursue a job or career with low salary and less promising growth outcome. In this way, jobs of social welfare and societal development are often overlooked by the young graduates. On the other hand, companies paying a good sum demand high skills, expertise, and some years of relevant field experience, which is not in the bag of a number of graduates. Thus, many switch their fields just to make enough money to pay their debt. So, this issue is not limited to students alone, but is also hurting the entire society.

According to the Obama Relief Program, more than 50,000 students from the low earning families will be benefited. According to the program, the loan will be given with less interest rate and will be due after 15-20 years of graduation. In this way, graduates will have more time to polish their skills and look for a job where they can get some experience and then move to a high paying one. However, one drawback in this program is that it has a very high merit criteria and only one in a thousand applications will be granted with loan through this program. Denhart states that children from poor families often receive education of mediocre standards, and they should not be compared with the ones graduated from elite schools and colleges. Furthermore, the graduates will also be required to stay in the country until they have cleared their entire debt. They can pay a visit to other countries, but cannot settle down there. This means that even if a student has got a great opportunity in another part of the world, he/she will not be able to avail it due to the bond.

There would still be a large number of students, who will graduate with a degree in hand, but not enough jobs and a high debt to pay. The government should look for more and better alternatives, if they really want to improve the overall status of their graduates and the society as a whole.

Author bio: The author of the paper, Sara Jones, is currently serving as a mentor in a number of Welfare Schools, with his team of doneassignment.co.uk. She has published a number of papers and articles, addressing the new and more effective ways of classroom teaching and student nurturing in the early years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sara Jones .