Student loan debt at UW-Madison is leveling off, the Office of Financial Services announced Thursday. The trend of recent years, however, is only applicable to undergraduates.
The average loan debt was $15,140 for students who earned their bachelor's degrees in 2000-'01, down $810 from 1999-2000. Also, average loan debt has dropped $771 from 1997-'98 to 1999-2001.
The percentage of graduating students with debt also decreased, dropping from around 46 percent since 1997-'98 to 43.2 percent this past school year.
Steve Van Ess, UW-Madison director of student financial services, said in a press release that this decrease may be partly due to the fact that the federal government has not increased the annual or cumulative loan limits in recent years.
Student loan default rates at UW-Madison remain well below the national average, the Office of Student Financial Services reported.
\These numbers are promising for undergraduate students,"" Van Ess said. ""However, the story is not the same across all student demographics.
Jessica Miller, chair of the Associated Students of Madison, said while she thought the recent statistics were positive, there is still room for improvement.
""Any student debt is cause for concern,"" she said. ""If students are graduating in debt then that means the education isn't affordable.""
ASM's Legislative Committee works closely with state budget officials concerning tuition issues, Miller said. The committee also deals with financial aid issues on a local and national level.
""Graduating [$15,140] in debt is still substantial,"" she said. ""An $800 decrease in the average student debt is fabulous except that student tuition is increasing at a rapid rate, especially for out-of-state students.""
She also said it was important to note the students, not taken into account in the statistics, who have had to drop out of school due to fiscal problems.
""There are a significant number of students who have to leave this university because the loans that they're getting can't cover it,"" she said. ""This doesn't paint the whole picture of what's going on.""
She also said she did not hold the administration fully responsible for students graduating in debt.
""I think it's important for the administration and students to stay on that message that the state needs to be supporting this university,"" she said. ""[It's] a public university and it must be supported by public funding.""
John Torphy, UW-Madison vice chancellor of administration, said he did not see these trends as dramatic for boosting interest in the university.
""Average debt from the span of the last five or six years hasn't changed and the percentage has held constant,"" he said. ""The high quality faculty, academics, and student life is what will continue to draw students to the university.\
