Most countries in Asia are experiencing a dramatic increase in demand for higher levels of education at a time of both severe public budget constraints and profound overhaul of education systems aimed at significantly increasing their impact and relevance. In an attempt to ease the burden on public budgets, a number of countries have introduced student loans schemes, hoping to recover costs and increase the revenue base for the expansion of education, while at the same time providing opportunities for poorer segments of the population to access higher levels of education. In an attempt to increase the knowledge base available to governments and provide practical insights which might be useful for national education policy, the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education initiated in 2001 a regional comparative study to examine the performance of student loans schemes in a number of countries in Asia. The study is intended to be instrumental in improving the efficacy and financial efficiency of existing schemes and in providing a comparative information base for countries intending to introduce a student loans scheme.
