While issues surrounding student debt regularly make headlines in the United States, they are equally serious in many other parts of the world.  Even though the colossal size of the nearly $1 trillion dollars in U.S. student debt dwarfs the amount of student debt in other countries, the problems that student debt have created elsewhere are no less serious.

In many countries, parents must co-sign all student debt.  In others, the interest rate (about 10% in Mexico, for example) is far higher than in the U.S.  In Chile, there are more than 100,000 student loan defaulters that owe an average of $5,400 each, which is about a third the country’s annual per capita income.* There have been demonstrations and protests throughout the world, and the situation remains a challenge as economies everywhere face financial difficulties, and governments continue to reduce the amount of money they devote to support both educational institutions and student loans.

* Ensino Superior, 7/8/2012