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The new Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE), due to start in 2025, is a major and positive improvement to how the student support system in England enables lifelong participation in higher education. This policy note considers the Government's response to the LLE consultation. Specifically, it considers whether the LLE will meet its own objectives. The LLE is part of the Government's reforms to post-18 education and training in England. It will offer students a loan equivalent to four years' worth of tuition fees (currently £37,000), which can be used flexibly over their working lives. This can be used to pay for short courses, modules or full courses at colleges or universities.

The LLE has five main objectives: (1) To enable greater parity of access between technical and academic courses; (2) To fund modules regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities; (3) To ensure that credit-bearing provision will support flexible, lifelong learning; (4) To transform the way learners access funding to enable learners to study, train, retrain or upskill at any stage in their lives; and (5) To encourage individuals to train, retrain and upskill in response to changes in labour markets and employment patterns.

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This [report] is part of a series of in-depth studies on student loan schemes. It makes a comparative review of five case studies undertaken in Asia, including [People's Republic of] PR China, Hong Kong [Special Administrative Region] SAR China, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines and Thailand. At a time when most Asian countries are experiencing both a dramatic increase in demand for higher education and severe public budgetary restraints, loan schemes are increasingly on the policy agenda. This synthesis study provides a broad canvas of practices and experiences, looking at aspects such as organization, funding, financial viability and targeting. It also provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each scheme studied, drawing valuable lessons for policy makers.

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Reviewing proposals for improving the complex array of federal student aid programs, [the authors] find agreement on some broad policy directions but considerable differences of opinion about the details. Many advocates support automatically placing student borrowers into income-driven repayment plans, which set payments at some percentage of discretionary income. And virtually no one argues against consolidating tuition tax credits and deductions into one credit. This comprehensive report examines over 20 proposals for reforming student loan repayment and education tax credits and deductions, evaluating the equity and efficiency of proposed provisions and providing recommendations for strengthening these components of federal student aid.

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President Biden ran on an agenda that included student debt relief for the more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe over $1.6 trillion. This would be in line with the Biden Administration's racial equity goals, as it would include relief for the millions of Black borrowers who are disproportionately affected by the student loan crisis. The student debt crisis is particularly dire for Black borrowers. Black degree-seekers are more likely to take out student loans to pay for higher education than white students, and they carry the largest average student loan debt of all racial demographics in the nation. Additionally, workforce inequities leave college-educated Black workers with higher rates of un- and underemployment and lower earnings than similarly educated white peers, making it even harder for these borrowers to escape from the burden of student loan debt. Black students are also more likely to leave college without a degree, leaving them saddled with student loan debt without the benefits of a degree. As a result, the higher education system has not served as a great equalizer to provide populations with lower wealth and lower incomes a path for socioeconomic mobility.

In this paper, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) explore the disproportionate impact of student debt on Black borrowers. We also make recommendations to address the dual student loan and college affordability crises through federal policies and executive action. These steps include administrative action to extend the student loan payment pause; ensure a smooth transition of loan accounts to new servicers; provide increased protections for borrowers, particularly those who are victims of predatory lending and for-profit colleges; improve existing repayment options, including Income-Driven Repayment (IDR); and invest in college affordability through federal grants like the Pell Grant, a federal free community college program, and support for student basic needs.

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