US Education: Student Loan Debt Crisis: How’d We Get Here and What Happens Next?

The amount of student loan debt and the rate of delinquency have been climbing for years now. If it seems like every new statistic is worse than the last, that’s because it is. Two studies released this week are no exception.

Credit bureau TransUnion says that in the past five years, the average student loan debt each borrower carries has risen 30% to $23,829. More than half of student loan accounts, which add up to more than 40% of the total dollars owed, are in deferral status. This is just a temporary reprieve; students can defer for only a few years before they have to repay.

The trouble is, many of them aren’t doing so. FICO Labs found that delinquencies rose by 22% in five years. For the newest group of loans it studied, delinquency rates are 15.1% — higher than the 11% cited by the Federal Reserve in a November report. Like the Fed’s study, the FICO analysis doesn’t include loans that are in a deferred status — which means the number of people who can’t afford to pay back that money may be almost twice as high as what the official delinquency rates reflect.

This situation obviously can’t be sustained over the long term. “I think a few more years and it’s going to be a general crisis,” says Barry Bosworth, an economist at the Brookings Institution. Interest rates are unusually low right now; when they rise, more borrowers who were just keeping their heads above water are liable to become delinquent.

Note EU-Digest: some European Governments like that of the Netherlands have also started to move away from Government subsidized student support and opted for a privatized student loan system. Given the results obtained in the US with this privatized loan system it does not seem to be the proper way to proceed.

Read more: Student Loan Debt Crisis: How’d We Get Here and What Happens Next? | TIME.com

Why Aren't US Students Rioting Over Crazy Tuition Hikes Like College Kids in Europe?

While London has been rocked by student protests over proposed tuition hikes, United States college campuses have been largely quiet. Tens of thousands of students in the UK have taken to the streets -- confronting police, storming the Conservative Party headquarters, even halting the motorcade of the British monarch Prince Charles.

In fact, all across Europe students are revolting. For months, Italian students have been protesting tuition cuts and budget reforms. Greek students have not responded kindly to IMF endorsed austerity measures. And proposed cuts to the pension system have driven French students, in typical fashion, apoplectic.

What best explains the dormancy on many college campuses is rooted in a national condition. The social value placed on universally accessible higher education has declined. College used to be dramatically less expensive because it was heavily subsidized by the state. The past few decades have seen “massive disinvestment”. In the accompanying time, the burden of financing higher education has shifted to the individual.

For more: Why Aren't US Students Rioting Over Crazy Tuition Hikes Like College Kids in Europe? | | AlterNet

Are we entering a Europe-wide 'winter of discontent" against Government spending cuts to remedy problems the financial community created

During the past few weeks, a remarkable wave of youth protest in a number of European countries has gathered pace. Murmurs of a return to 1968, or that we are entering into a 'winter of discontent' abound.

In the UK and Italy, young people have mobilized in large numbers against proposed overhauls of their respective higher education systems. When we consider how different higher education was for the generation which currently hold the reins of power to the system they are trying to impose on their children (or grandchildren), such a response is hardly surprising.

The reform proposals in the UK in particular, are likely to act as a setback to the achievement of the goals of the Bologna Process. Highly varying fee levels are likely to act as a barrier to the mobility of students across Europe. Furthermore, there is the additional consideration of fairness. How fair is it that the system in England is more or less self-funded, when degrees for all European citizens in other countries are paid for entirely by the taxpayer?

The debate on education reform is situated within the wider debate on austerity measures in Europe and indeed the debate surrounding what kind of society we Europeans wish to live in. The right to an affordable and high quality education which provides each European citizen with an equal opportunity to succeed in the labour market should be a fundamental right. In a recent editorial European Alternatives presented its position on the current wave of austerity spreading across Europe, advocating a shift of focus to the transnational dimension. With solidarity across Europe citizens can, and indeed must, come together to construct a new, and truly just, society for all Europeans. We must come together, to act now!

For more: Are we entering a Europe-wide 'winter of discontent'? - European Alternatives

Zeit Online: Education - European Universities - CHE Excellence ranking - Campus

For the complete report from the ZEIT ONLINE click on this link

Education - European Universities - CHE Excellence ranking - Campus

The CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development has developed a ”Ranking of Excellent European Graduate Programs” (CHE Excellence Ranking for short) for the disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. The ranking wants to highlight the research strengths European Higher Education Institutions have and to give ideas to further improve the programs. Students can find the right Doctoral or Master program as well as information on more than 1,000 research teams.

About 20 European institutions have been selected for the second stage of analysis on the basis of four criteria (publications, citations, most-cited authors and Marie Curie programs). For these institutions, more detailed data has been acquired, such as information about faculties as well as about master and doctoral programs. In addition, students have been asked to asses their general study situation.