HBCU Case Study Documents How Schools Can Help Students Pay Back Loans: They are called recession graduates. They have moved back home; they are just beginning to understand what their credit score means; and after four-plus years of attending their choice school they find themselves jobless or under-employed.
Without the money to pay back thousands of dollars in school loans, increased defaults will debilitate a growing number of graduates — many of whom came from low-income households and attended schools as first-generation college students — and their institutions will suffer stiff penalties due to having increased rates of delinquent borrowers.
A new report from the Washington-based Education Sector organization released Tuesday called “Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed,” argues that institutions can work proactively to reduce default rates among former students using “default-aversion” strategies. Education Sector is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that develops progressive education policy ideas and proposals.
