By . The National Consumer Law Center on Monday sued the U.S. Department of Education to force it to turn over records on how it pays and oversees private student-loan debt collectors.
The law center has previously raised concerns about debt collectors who work on the department’s behalf, and said it asked the department in March to provide information about the incentives it provides those businesses. More...
The Young Invicibles held a media event on Capitol Hill last week during which the student advocacy group and four Democratic Senators called for stronger regulation of the for-profit sector. Dymond Blackmon, a former student, spoke at the event. He said he racked up more than $90,000 in debt while earning an associate degree from the International Academy of Design and Technology, which is owned by Career Education Corp., a for-profit chain. Read more...
A consumer advocacy group on Monday sued the U.S. Department of Education over the agency’s refusal to release documents showing how the federal government awards bonuses to debt collection companies it hires to recover defaulted student loans. The National Consumer Law Center charges in its lawsuit that the department violated the Freedom of Information Act by withholding records relating to the performance and incentive pay for the government’s contracted debt collectors. Read more...
Roughly 9 percent of the $511 billion spent in 2011 in the United States on higher education went to financing interest payments or to corporate profits, according to a new analysis from the Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics at the University of California at Berkeley. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) commissioned the report, which found that $45 billion in higher education spending that year was for interest on individual student loan debt or on colleges' borrowing, or went to profits made by for-profit college companies. Read more...
By Shiv Malik, Andrew McGettigan and John DomokosCollege called 'the ATM' by students who believe they can obtain loans of up to £11K a year and then not show up. A private college in north London is offering government-funded places to people who "blatantly" don't have the skills, recruiting candidates off the street and from countries in eastern Europe – and in at least one case lecturing to a class with no students. Read more...
By . The UK’s public spending watchdog has been asked to investigate possible misuse of public money in the student loans system by for-profit colleges. The government has allowed private and for-profit providers to expand their numbers of students with public-backed loans without any restrictions on their student numbers. Nearly £1 billion will be paid out to students at private providers by the Student Loans Company next year, up from just £30 million in 2010. More...
By Phil Izzo. As college graduates in the Class of 2014 prepare to shift their tassels and accept their diplomas, they leave school with one discouraging distinction: They’re the most indebted class ever.
The average Class of 2014 graduate with student-loan debt has to pay back some $33,000, according to an analysis of government data by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher at student-marketing company Edvisors. Even after adjusting for inflation that’s nearly double the amount borrowers had to pay back 20 years ago. More...
By . Higher One Holdings Inc., a major provider of campus-based debit cards and other financial services, this week disclosed in a corporate filing that it is facing penalties from the Federal Reserve that could trigger default on a loan. More...
By . Last spring, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) released new evidence on the relationship between student loan debt and home ownership. It found that during the financial crisis, young people with student loan debt had become less likely than those without debt to take on mortgage debt (a proxy for home ownership) by the time they reached age 30. It was suggested that this reversed the long-run trend in which individuals with student loan debt, who tended to be wealthier and more educated than their debtless peers, were more likely to own a home. Although this analysis provided useful information about student loan debt, it is subject to a number of limitations. More...
By Maya Oppenheim. With no interest to pay while you study, CDLs are an attractive option for cash-strapped postgrads – but there are financial risks. Funding is the biggest headache faced by students wanting to continue their studies after their undergrad degree. Taught master's degrees no longer qualify for research council funding, and while some students manage to put together a funding package through scholarships and sponsorships, others are drawn to taking out a bank loan. More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
