Loans for Learning: The Loans versus Grants Debate in International Perspective

After 25 years of debate, the government has announced that it intends to introduce a system of 'top-up' loans, to supplement maintenance grants for students in higher education. Other countries, including Sweden, West Germany and the USA already have student loan schemes and the Australian Government has recently announced a 'higher education contribution', to be collected via the tax system. There have been proposals in Britain for a more radical system of student loans, collected via National Insurance contributions, or for 'vouchers' for tuition fees. This paper considers the arguments for and against loans, and the various policy options and concludes that the time is right to introduce a combination of grants and loans, but that the new system should be carefully monitored.     

Student loans in Nigeria

The Nigerian Students Loans Board was first established in 1972, and between 1973 and 1991 it provided loans totalling 46 million Naira, to help Nigerian students finance undergraduate or postgraduate study in Nigeria or abroad. There have been severe problems, however, and the rate of recovery of loan repayments has been very disappointing. This article describes the operation of the student loan programme in Nigeria and its past problems, outlines the current attempts of the Nigerian Students Loans Board to improve the efficiency of loan collection and proposes the establishment of a new Education Bank to finance student loans and other forms of investment in higher education.     

Student loans for higher education in Singapore: some observations

The higher education system of Singapore is seen as crucial for the economic prosperity of the country. It is highly elitist, with fierce competition for limited places, and high private returns. In 1989 the Government announced a policy of reducing subsidies for higher education, in order to reduce the financial burden on the tax-payer, increase expenditure on other levels of education and achieve a more equitable distribution of costs. Tuition fees were increased sharply and a new student loan scheme, the Tuition Loan Scheme (TLS), was introduced. There are in addition two other loan schemes in Singapore, the Student Loan Fund (SLF), and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Approved Education Scheme, under which parents may borrow from their CPF savings in order to finance their children's higher education, but must repay the loan. This article examines the arguments for and against student loans in Singapore, and concludes that the conditions necessary for a successful loan scheme are already in place: full employment, high private returns to higher education, and an efficient banking system and financial infrastructure. In the light of those conditions student loans seem to be an efficient and equitable form of finance for higher education in Singapore.Views do not implicate The National University of Singapore or The International Institute for Population Sciences. I am thankful to Mr Geoffrey Lau, Planning Services Unit, National University of Singapore for some suggestions and assistance. The usual disclaimers are relevant.     

建立国家助学贷款失信惩戒机制的探讨

国家助学贷款作为发展我国高等教育的一项重要制度,为高校在校贫困生顺利完成学业提供了重要保障.但在实施的过程中,高违约问题却成为当前制约我国国家助学贷款发展的主要障碍,学生诚信出现重大问题.文章分析了在国家助学贷款中部分学生贷款、还款方面诚信缺失的现象及原因,提出了构建国家助学贷款失信惩戒机制的政策建议,并强调增强大学生诚信还贷意识的具体举措.     

香港地区高等教育学生贷款的经验与启示

伴随全球性的高教财政危机，高等教育成本回收理论的推广以及政府资助高校模式的改变，高等教育学生贷款在许多国家逐渐出现并发展起来。适应高校扩张和收费提高之需要，香港地区的高等教育学生贷款方案经过30多年的发展，已形成一个较为规范的多元化的学生贷款体系。本文在介绍和分析香港学生贷款发展脉络及现状特点的基础上，将香港地区的学生贷款与中国大陆实施的学生贷款加以比较，并根据香港的成功经验对后者的发展提出相应的建议。     

国家担保：发挥社保基金参与助学贷款的独特优势

国家担保是助学贷款健康发展的根本保障。国家担保的助学贷款是优质的金融资产。社保基金机构拥有学生就业、薪酬、劳动保险和医疗保障信息,拥有与用人单位之间密切的业务联系网,拥有与商业银行之间信息资源共享平台,可以有效地监控、跟踪学生状况及回收贷款,发挥社会评估作用,促使高等教育机构为社会培养更多适用的优秀人才。社保基金参与国家担保的助学贷款,可以大幅度降低还款违约率,使社保基金安全地保值增值,实现双赢。     

国家助学贷款需纠偏

国家助学贷款是我国政府帮助经济困难大学生顺利完成学业的主要措施。实施几年来，收到了巨大的成警，竺其速行中，也存在着许多不规范之处，并且引发一些不良后果。如何处理大学生、高等学校与贷款银行之间的关系，避免助学贷款的负面影响，成为本文探讨的主要问题。     

关注国家助学贷款政策实施中的问题——柳州视角

国家助学贷款是促进我国高等教育事业发展的金融手段和政策,为我国高等教育事业的发展做出了积极的贡献。但也由于受诸多因素的影响,我国国家助学贷款在制度的设计和政策的实践上仍存在不少缺陷,严重地影响了其实施的成效,从而需要作进一步的改革与完善。本文将以柳州市国家助学贷款业务开展情况为切入点,对国家助学贷款操作中存在的问题提出可行性建议。     

学生贷款社会流动功用的实证分析

高等教育具有社会流动的功能,随着高等教育费用的快速增长,高等教育的社会流动功能呈现弱化的趋势。但实施学生贷款政策后,通过学生贷款保障高等教育社会流动功能顺利实现,间接发挥着促进贫困生向上社会流动的功用。为了进一步促进贫困生向上社会流动,我国应该加快学生贷款的立法工作,发展多种形式的学生贷款,并且扩大学生贷款的覆盖面。     

英格兰高校学生贷款政策浅析

自1990年开始至今,英格兰高校学生贷款政策已经经历了三个发展阶段。2006-2007学年开始实施的新学生贷款政策的性质、内容、申请资格、审核标准以及管理和申请情况均出现了较大的变化。作为典型的政策性贷款,英格兰高校学生贷款政策设计的合理性以及后续影响的分析对中国高校学生贷款政策的制定具有一定的借鉴价值。     

Financing higher education in India

This paper is an attempt to analyse the present pattern of funding higher education in India and to discuss the desirability and feasibility of various alternative methods of funding the same. Higher education in India is basically a state funded sector. But as higher education benefits not only society at large, but also individuals specifically, and as it attracts relatively more privileged sections of the society, there is a rationale for shifting the financial burden to the individual domain from the social domain.It is argued here that given the resource constraints and equity considerations, financing higher education mostly from the general tax revenue may not be a desirable policy in the long run. Accordingly some of the alternative policy choices are discussed, including financing higher education from the public exchequer, student loans, graduate tax, student fees, and the role of the private sector. Among the available alternatives, it is argued that a discriminatory pricing mechanism would be relatively more efficient and equitable. While given the socioeconomic and political realities, the government has to continue to bear a large responsibility for funding higher education, instead of relying on a single form of funding, efforts should be made to evolve a model of funding that provides a mix of the various methods. It is also argued that fee and subsidy policies need to make distinctions across various layers and forms of higher education.     

国家助学贷款对高等教育个人收益率的影响

人力资本理论认为教育是一项能给个人带来收益的投资。借助学生贷款完成高等教育将改变个人的教育成本和收益,并影响借贷者的高等教育个人收益率。本文研究国家助学贷款政策对高等教育个人收益率的影响程度,以及不同的还款方案对高等教育个人收益率作用的大小。     

论高校国家助学贷款管理工作

实施国家助学贷款是落实科教兴国战略、构建和谐社会、促进高等教育发展的一项重要举措,认真做好大学生国家助学贷款工作是高校的重要责任。文章论述了高校学生助学贷款管理机构主要任务和今后工作的努力方向,以保证国家助学贷款长期有效的推行。     

Student loans in Ghana

Student loans were first introduced in Ghana in 1971, but the scheme was abandoned the following year, due to a change of government. A revised scheme was introduced in 1975, but faced problems of high rates of default. Attempts to improve recovery since 1986 have had some success, but in 1989 the Government of Ghana introduced a new student loan scheme, which is administered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust. This article summarises the current pattern of finance of higher education, gives a brief history of student loans in Ghana and describes the new scheme, introduced in 1989.     

需要层次论视域下的贫困生激励管理与实践

国家高度重视高校贫困生问题,采取了设立国家励志奖学金、助学金,提供助学贷款、鼓励社会捐赠等一系列措施从经济上减轻贫困生压力,以促其完成学业。然而在具体操作中,只在经济上援助,忽视了贫困生的心理救助,导致不少贫困生走不出心理因素的困扰,出现了程度不一的心理问题。以马斯洛需要层次论为理论依据,用典型案例来分析和探讨解决高校贫困生心理问题的途径。     

我国学生贷款政策变迁研究

本文从问题流、政策流和政治流视角出发,对我国学生贷款政策子系统的外部影响因素分别进行了细化分析,并就我国资源禀赋现状、高等教育财政资源条件、公众价值观念等较稳定因素对学生贷款两大政策阶段变迁过程的制约进行了探讨,同时对政策演进历程的反馈环进行了描述.同时在动态演进的框架中阐述了我国学生贷款两大发展阶段政策的关系与区别、政策变迁的触发及影响因素,解释了产生我国学生贷款政策问题驱动、采取渐进修正路径等政策变迁特点的原因.     

Planning for Flexible and Distance Learning in Engineering: Indian Experience

Speed of technology modernization at the workplace has brought a need for opportunities for professional development for those at work. Distance education in engineering provides a viable alternative to meet this learner need. In concrete terms, this calls for employment‐related, flexible programme structures, where course content design, self‐instructional material preparation and student support services for course delivery are planned and implemented in a collaborative endeavour between distance teaching institutions, conventional, academic institutions and industry. While detailing the distance education programmes in science, computer applications and nursing education at the Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, the paper presents the above networking approach to the design and implementation of flexible programme structures as developed by IGNOU in implementing its engineering programmes.     

The challenge of financing higher education and the role of student loans scheme: an analysis of the student loan trust fund (SLTF) in Ghana

Student loans program is one of the most controversial phenomena in financing higher education in Ghana, but its importance as a cost sharing mechanism is incontestable. This paper describes the challenge of financing higher education in Ghana. It provides a critique of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Student Loans Scheme, and analyzes the present Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) policy. The paper outlines the new policy framework, critically looks at some implementation problems and provides some practical policy recommendations. The paper questions the mechanisms put in place to ensure the sustainability of the new policy? It concludes that a more efficient student loans scheme should strike the balance between lenders risk and borrowers aversion.     

Student loans in developing countries: feasibility,experience and prospects for reform

Student loan schemes now exist in more than fifty countries, but many are not working well and critics question whether student loans are feasible in developing countries. This special issue of Higher Education compares experience of student loans and other forms of student support in selected Asian and African countries and examines the prospects for reform of student loan programmes in order to improve their effectiveness and reduce default. This introduction to the volume describes current research on student loans by the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the World Bank, and draws on the conclusions of a series of Educational Forums on student loans organised by IIEP, to conclude that student loans are feasible, and can promote wider cost-sharing and help to generate additional resources for higher education, but only if loan programmes are well designed and efficiently managed. The purpose of this introduciton and the subsequent articles in the special issue is to suggest some ways of improving performance of student loans in developing countries, drawing on lessons from experience in Asia and English-speaking Africa.     

A Waste of Time? (Private Rates of Return to Higher Education in the 1990s)

Since 1990, there has been considerable debate concerning the benefits of the expansion of higher education and the appropriate way to fund such an expansion. This paper demonstrates that three factors are decisive to the individual contemplating higher education: national economic growth; the relative earnings of graduates and non-graduates; the difference between the average and the marginal student. The results, of analysis based on rates of return, reaffirm the view that a proportion of the costs involved in higher education can be transferred to the graduates themselves in the form of loans. However, there appear to be limits to the costs that can be transferred if all students are to judge that undergraduate study is a worthwhile proposition. Notwithstanding this, most students could be lent more income to study than is now the case and indeed an average student would be advised to take any loans despite the greater debt. Marginal students, however, are making a risky private investment and, therefore, any decisions to further expand may result in students not taking up the places.