State Student Loan Policy Analysis And Empirical Research

Government subsidized student loan schemes (GSSLS) is established by government to subsidize those college students who were born in poor families to complete their undergraduate studies. The policy was on trial in 8 cities including Beijing, Shanghai etc. in 1999 and spread throughout the country after then. Millions of students have been subsidized from GSSLS. However, in China only a small part of needed students were aided from the student loans policy and many problems have arisen such as the bank's reluctance and the high default rate in the past 6 years.Although the government has adjusted the contents of GSSLS policy for a couple of times, the reasonability and capability of GSSLS and the efficacy of the implementation is currently unknown.The first part of the thesis is based on the theoretical analysis and the current situation of GSSLS policy. Theoretically, GSSLS is the compromise of higher education cost-sharing and education equity; technically, it is one of the main subsidizing approaches. The past 5 years, filled with many adjustments on GSSLS policy, is divided into 3 phases.The second chapter is focused on the content analysis of the GSSLS. From the viewpoint of government, institutes and student individual, the financial benefits, the risks and obligations are explored. The key element analysis is helpful to understand GSSLS better. The financial analysis indicates that compared to current globally successful experiences, the repayment ratio of GSSLS is relatively high, which means low hidden grants and the repayment burden is rather high. Finally, the capability of implementation GSSLS is discussed.The third chapter is focused on the implementation of the real case in Jiangsu Province (1999-2003). The empirical investigation is mainly about the reach, equity and efficacy of GSSLS. The outcome indicates that the reach is rather low; the equity analysis shows that the implementation of GSSLS including the application, auditing and conformity in local institutes is significantly better than that of central institutes; the efficacy suggests that the main reason of default is the limited repayment ability.Finally, the suggestions on policy making and implementation are given through theoretical and empirical analysis. Those suggestions are categorized from the perspectives of policy making, implementation, and management.