By Matthew McGowan. A first degree shouldn’t cost a second mortgage!
Australian students have accumulated debt from their university study of over $34 billion. We estimate outstanding HELP debt is increasing by $500,000 an hour ($12 million a day).
Visit MyStudentDebt.com.au to see the up-to-date estimate for HELP debt.
A person enrolling in an Australian university as a Commonwealth supported student will graduate with a debt for tuition fees of between $18,000 and $64,000.
If you take living costs into account, the total cost of attaining a degree could be in excess of $200,000.
Get all the fact and figures at MyStudentDebt.com.au or download the My Student Debt brochure.

By Allison Sherry. At more than two dozen public, private and for-profit colleges in Colorado, thousands of former students have stopped paying on their federal student loans — and at least one school faces federal sanctions because the default rate is so high. Schools blame the state's soft economy for the growing default rates among students attending all kinds of schools in Colorado. Just over 8,800 Colorado students, or 10.1 percent, failed to make an on-time repayment on a federal loan for nine consecutive months, according to 2010 data, the most recent available. The rate tops the national rate of 9.1 percent. More...

By Hadley Malcolm. The financial burden of paying for college has families cost-cutting before their kids even apply to schools. And it's affecting students' decisions about not only where to go, but what to study, according to survey data given exclusively to USA TODAY. The survey by Discover Student Loans, to be released Thursday, found that nearly half of adults are limiting their child's college choices based on price. And with rising student loan debt and a job market that continues to greet college grads with not-so-open arms, the ability to find employment has become a top factor in deciding what to study. The number of adults who say earning potential is more important to their child's education than what they major in is up, at 42% vs. 38% last year, the survey shows. More...

By Rachel Fishman, Ben Miller. This blog post is the third part in a series that takes a look at recent changes to the credit criteria for Parent PLUS loans and the subsequent effect on colleges and universities. You can find the introductory post here and the second post here.
For nearly a year the Department of Education has been under a firestorm of criticism from the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) community
and its advocates over changes to the PLUS loan program that they say reduced revenue and enrollment at these institutions. According to an article yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Education Department finally relented and made further accommodations to help more applicants get approved, while promising to rethink the criteria as part of a rulemaking session next spring. But did loosening criteria really solve a national policy problem? Or was it a set of changes to benefit a small subset of institutions, the result of which will mean greater amounts of worse debt for families?
The Department’s changes were outlined in a letter to Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. In it Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote that, the Department would more than double the size of debt it considers to be “de minimis,” allowing rejected borrowers with larger debts of any type to be approved through an appeals process. "We believe this may help families who have relatively small adverse credit events that negatively impact their credit histories, such as unpaid medical debt, parking tickets, or cell phone bills of greater than 90 days duration,” the letter says. More...

By Justin Draeger. This week, the U.S. Department of Education announced changes to the PLUS loan underwriting standards that may help previously denied PLUS loan applicants obtain loans. This will be welcome news to previously approved loan applicants who found themselves unexpectedly denied last year. But federal PLUS loans can be risky business for graduate students and parents of undergraduates who can use them to borrow up to the full cost of attendance at college. Much more can be done to protect consumers from getting too deeply into debt. The Department of Education recently added PLUS loan underwriting standards to its list of items to potentially consider during negotiated rule-making, the process where students, advocates and colleges work with the federal government to hash out new regulations. Read more...

By Nick Anderson. The Education Department is taking new steps to help parents obtain federal college loans if their applications are rejected because of minor problems in their credit history — an effort to address complaints about tighter lending standards that has hurt enrollment at historically black colleges and universities.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan disclosed the action in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. For months, advocates of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have pressed Duncan for help because a sharp reduction in lending to parents has had a significant impact on HBCUs, including Howard University in the District, Morgan State University in Maryland and Hampton University in Virginia. More...