<p>How do other countries fund their education? Do they use student loans? Yes, they do. Here’s how it’s done in the UK:</p>
<p>[Student</a> loans - Student loans for fees & maintenance : HERO](<a href=“http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/studying/funding_your_study/sources_of_help/loans.cfm]Student”>http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/studying/funding_your_study/sources_of_help/loans.cfm)</p>
<p>Note that while theirs is a government run loan agency, the proprietary/career schools are not part of that system. If you need to borrow for a career school you go to a private bank like Barclays and get what’s called a Career Development Loan. I would be all for eliminating trade schools from the US federal student loan program and going to the UK system and making these loans the province of the private banks.</p>
<p>If you don’t get enough money from your govt loan to meet your needs, then you can go to a private bank and get what’s called a Student Overdraft Loan. The website cautions against doing this as it says many students get themselves into unmanageable debt with these loans and have to drop out of school. Hmm, sounds like the US.</p>
<p>In the UK interest starts accruing on the govt loan the minute the loan proceeds are paid although you don’t start paying off the loan til after you graduate and are earning more than 15k pounds, roughly $30,000. They put you on a repayment schedule tied to your income to keep the payments manageable, but you keep paying til the loan is paid off. Outstanding loan balances are written off by the govt when you turn 65 years of age. For loans written after 2006, you keep paying for 25 years before the loan is written off. Either way you are in debt for the rest of your life, more or less. What an improvement over the US system.</p>