You mean 5 figure loans right? Five figures are quite common (I am paying one off myself) but I think 6 is really quite rare. In any case, with few exceptions

You mean 5 figure loans right? Five figures are quite common (I am paying one off myself) but I think 6 is really quite rare. In any case, with few exceptions tuition money does not get used to conduct any kind of research. Most of it will go towards some combination of paying for administration, facilities, and teaching fees for non-tenured lecturers (in the parlance of the US system). In fact, at most Tier I research institutions research grants are actually subsidizing educational expenses with various mechanisms built in to most awards requiring expenditures to this effect.