There is wide agreement the US student loan system faces significant problems. Seven million borrowers are in default and many more experience non-repayment. The stress of repayments faced by many students results at least in part from the design of US student loans. Specifically, loans are...

This paper discusses the problems that arise from interest subsidies in the UK system of student loans; systems in other countries, for example Australia and New Zealand, face similar problems. The topic appears to be narrow and technical, and of significance only to the most nerdy of...

This paper puts forward a strategy for achieving two objectives in higher education –improved access and increased quality – about which there is unanimous agreement.[...]

Both the quantity and quality of education and training in Britain are being comparedunfavourably with arrangements in other countries at a time when public expenditure isfacing the most stringent constraints. This paper starts from the presumption thatimprovements in the quality and quantity of...

How best to widen university access - by abolishing fees, as the Tories suggest, or byenhancing student loans, as the government plans?[...]

Universities need cash, students need support and there are too few working-classentrants. After a two-year extension, Charles Clarke and the class of '73 are all set todeliver answers to these problems. Nicholas Barr offers a guide to how you, theexaminers, should mark their responses.[...]