Equity in Debt: A Literature Review of Stafford Debt Load, Persistence, and Degree Attainment

• In Event: Poster Session 16
  In Poster Session: Equity, Educational Change, and Persistence in Higher Education Debt

Abstract

Financial aid and student persistence scholarship demonstrates the remaining gap in research concerning the effects of student debtload on persistence decision. Financial aid policy falls short of the ideals of equity asserted from its inception. This paper provides a review of this literature, and suggests that to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the role financial aid programs play in attaining educational equity, we must consider the impact of debtload on persistence and degree attainment for underrepresented students in higher education.

Author

• Mari Y. Noopila, New Mexico State University