Role of Student Loans in Accessibility of Higher Professional Education

Abstract

Marina Sedova, Ph.D. in Economics, Professor in the State and Local Government Finances Department, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation.  Email: sedfin@mail.ru
Address: 49 Leningradsky Ave., Moscow, 125993, Russian Federation.

Prospects for student loans in the Russian Federation are assessed through analyzing the role of loans in education financing, the legal framework for student loans, and the results of a student loan governmental support experiment.

The timeliness of assessing the role student loans play in financing higher professional education is explained by the need to find the most efficient student loan tools that would allow for a better access to higher education, for an optimization of federal (or, in some cases, regional) spending on higher education, and for a coordination of education financing with demand for future professions as an education quality factor.

The author suggests that, since higher professional education is regarded as a public good in Russia, student loans should be considered an additional and not the main source of higher education financing. If public-funded university places are cut, reallocation of budget funds from direct financing of higher education to governmental support of student loans granted by commercial banks to students and applicants will allow for a better access to higher professional education with much less federal and regional spending.

As opportunities of student loans are hardly used in Russia today, recommendations have been given for their efficient implementation.