By Josh Lederman. Up to 5 million Americans struggling to make their monthly student loan payments could find relief under a program President Barack Obama expanded Monday, part of an election-year push by Democrats to paint Republicans as blocking common-sense steps that could help the middle class.
Dubbing it a "no-brainer," Obama also threw his support behind legislation to let some of those same borrowers refinance their student loans at lower rates, in a move the administration said could save 25 million borrowers up to $2,000 over the life of their loans. More...

Spain's Education, Professional Training and Universities Minister has cited the United Kingdom as an example to follow in higher education funding and is considering following its example of replacing grants with student loans.
Speaking at a Forum Europa breakfast held at the Valencia campus of the Menéndez Pelayo International University, Montserrat Gomendio asked if Spain should continue with its current grants system or adopt a UK-style system. More...

By Eric Best. Joel started thinking about writing about student loans more than 30 years ago, when he noticed that the national conversation about student loans had somehow shifted from depicting students as young people who deserved help to characterizing student borrowers as “deadbeats.”
Eric, who had taken a job dealing with corporate loans during the run-up to the Great Recession, noticed that student-loan policy started to mimic mortgage deregulation that had led to the housing bubble, in that Democrats wanted to give more people access to the American Dream via increased credit, while Republicans favored minimal government regulation. That combination resulted in vast debt growth with reduced individual-level oversight. More...

By Laura W. Perna. The U.S. cannot reach the levels of educational attainment required for international competitiveness in a global, technologically driven economy without closing the considerable gaps in attainment that persist across groups. Gaps in attainment based on family income are among the most vexing. Compared with students from higher-income families, students from low-income families are less likely to enroll in college and, among those who do enroll, are less likely to graduate. One particularly formidable barrier limiting higher-education attainment — especially for low-income students — is the need to rely on loans to pay college costs. Read more...

By Matthew Knott, Fergus Hunter. The federal government faces blanket opposition from university vice-chancellors to its plan to increase the interest rate on all student debts and slash university funding, a survey shows. 
The Fairfax Media poll of the nation's 39 vice-chancellors - who are divided on the question of fee deregulation - found a unified stance against applying an interest rate of up to 6 per cent to student debts and cutting the Commonwealth contribution to the cost of a degree by 20 per cent. Read more...

By Neela Debnath. An activist in Chile has burnt documents representing $500 million (£300 million) worth of student debt during a protest at Universidad del Mar. Francisco Tapia, who is also known as “Papas Fritas”, claimed that he had “freed” the students by setting fire to the debt papers or “pagarés”.
Mr Tapia has justified his actions in a video he posted on YouTube on Monday 12 May, which has since gone viral and garnered over 55,000 views. More...