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Category: Student Aid

Quebec Election Manifestos 2022

Quebec goes to the polls next Monday, and while I do election manifesto analysis for all provinces, the one for Quebec is a bit extra special, both because of the sheer number of parties and because Quebec’s one of the few places in the country where we have seen consistent increases in investment, even if the current government does have some funny ideas about things like “academic freedom”.  In reverse order of current polling results: Parti québécois.  Remember when they

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September 29, 2022 No Comments

The Long Strange History of Loan Remission Policies

One thing that long marked Canada out as an oddball amongst nations in higher education policy is the reliance of its student aid systems on something called “loan remission”.  A series of recent policy moves has nearly eradicated the use of this policy tool. Loan remission is pretty simple.  Students take out a loan at the start of a year of studies and then before repayment begins some of it gets written off.  Sometimes it’s done annually, sometimes it’s done

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September 8, 2022 1 Comment

Cross-National Student Loan Repayment Comparisons

As I mentioned yesterday,  there was a big change in US student loan policy last week, namely with respect to income-based repayment.  As I see it, the new rules make it one of the least onerous places in the world in which to repay student loans, by some standards.  But before I substantiate this claim, I need to discuss how student loan repayments work around the world. Trying to compare loan burdens across national borders can be tricky because the

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August 31, 2022 1 Comment

US Debt Cancellation – What Just Happened?

So, the big news last week in world higher education was the Biden administration finally cancelling some student debt and – in theory, who knows? – resuming student loan repayments in December of this year (they were suspended in the Spring of 2020 in the chaos of early COVID.) Let’s break down Wednesday’s announcement. The government forgave the following debt: Up to $20,000 of Department of Education debt for borrowers who apply and meet the following three criteria: have outstanding

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August 30, 2022 No Comments

America’s Student Debt Cancellation Morass

It has now been something on the order of 26 months since anyone in the United States has been required to make payments their student loans.  As in Canada, these payments were suspended at the outset of the pandemic.  But whereas in Canada repayments re-started after about six months (Oct 1, 2020), in the United States they have yet to do so.  Understanding why gets us all a little closer to understanding the disfunction that is the American Higher Education

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May 26, 2022 2 Comments

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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