Matt Bowman Source 5

How does the system of student loans work?

Mohadeb, Praveen. Student Loans Schemes in Mauritius: Experience, Analysis and Scenarios. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) UNESCO, 2006. ERIC PlusText [ProQuest]. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.

This book offers an in-depth evaluation of the student loans schemes in Mauritius. It then recommends how to set up a national scheme that is most likely to avoid the downfalls seen in other countries’ schemes. It proposes that such a system would be cost-effective and valuable for students and the government alike. In doing the included research, the author used a literature search and desk study for the compilation of secondary data sets, as well as a survey and interviews for the collection of principal data sets. The book splits its findings into an introduction, a profile of Mauritius, a rundown on the country’s higher education system, their demand, supply, and sustainability of higher education, student loans as an alternative to funding, the main features of their current student loans, considerations in a design of a scheme, and proposals for a student loans scheme.  

After my last bit of research, I wanted to return back to earlier lines of thought on how to fix the system of student loans. This short book goes into great detail about what kind of country the system it discusses is placed, how they came up with their system, and some implications of the system. This, in my opinion, answers a lot of questions regarding how student loans even come about in the first place. This seemed important to me because I was at a point where I wanted to look at how our current system of student loans might be fixed. Thus, I needed to better understand how a system such as that worked. By using this source I can pick apart the pieces of the student loan puzzle and see its inner workings. This will help me assess where I think damage is being done and where more emphasis needs to be placed. I am still airing on the side of emphasis being placed on better education of student loans. However, I think this article is helpful in seeing other potential areas of need. This source helps answer my question about how student loan systems work very well. It doesn’t provide a ton of opportunities for critical thinking but it provides beneficial empirical findings that help me assess my solutions.

This source converses nicely with almost every source I have found thus far. It is really more of an overarching understanding to student loans as a whole, not on a basic level but on a higher thinking level that helps me see how student loans actually work, beyond book definitions. This added piece of the conversation is important because it goes beyond what other sources tend to say (simple definitions) and provides a rundown of how those definitions work in the real world. Not much conversation takes place directly but it does occur. I think this difference in subject matter is the biggest takeaway for me. This leads me to further my emphasis on education because this article alone helped clear so much up, I can only imagine what educational pieces like this could do on a more widespread scale.

This source doesn’t provide a lot of different routes for me to explore, it really serves the purpose of showing how the loan system works. However, I do think I will now finish off my research by furthering my study of the implications of a solution. This book does a great job explaining some implications so I will use that as I search more.