Education loan access shrinking as outstanding amount surges: Panel

A new report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on education, women, children, youth and sports, has warned that India’s education loan system is becoming increasingly exclusionary, even as students are being pushed into taking larger loans to meet soaring higher-education costs. The Committee noted that the number of active student loans fell from 23.36 lakh in 2014 to 20.63 lakh in 2025. During the same period, the total outstanding loan amount rose from about Rs 52,327 crore to Rs 1,37,474 crore. This indicates that while fewer students are receiving loans, those who do are borrowing much more than before. The Committee described this as a sign of both rising educational costs and shrinking access to institutional credit for young people. “The Committee expresses its concerns