You're right, that is a pretty generous scheme as far as a regular loan goes, but not necessarily as far as a student loans go worldwide. As an Australian my st

You're right, that is a pretty generous scheme as far as a regular loan goes, but not necessarily as far as a student loans go worldwide. As an Australian my student loan debt repayment is paid as an extra levy on my taxes based on my income. An engineer earning 80 grand a year can expect to pay 6% of their income into their loan every year until it's paid off but you won't start making repayments until you earn at least 55 grand. What's important is that this slow repayment isn't an issue for anyone because there's no interest charged on the loan. It is indexed (with the CPI) so its real value doesn't change. Expensive university fees aren't so much an issue because the repayments don't hurt in the slightest. Obviously this can only exist as a public scheme. The government's effectively writing a loan that will provide no return at best, and for a variety of reasons may not be repaid at worst. Still, considering recent governments' zeal in increasing enrolment rates, it's a relatively cheap way of providing pain free student debt.