NAICU Survey Finds Impact from Student Loan Crunch, but No Widespread Loan Crisis for Fall 2008 Semester

NAICU surveyed its 953 member institutions about the effect of the credit crunch on student loan availability for ths current semester. Good news: Not much of a strong impact, yet. Here's the press release and here's the full report. This quote is from the press release:

While there was no widespread student loan crisis this fall, there were multiple instances of students taking time off of school, switching to part-time status, and turning to alternative forms of financial support, according to the results of a survey conducted by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The survey, released today, also found a considerable amount of behind-the-scenes scrambling by private colleges to keep loan capital flowing to their students.

"In the main, the survey shows that independent higher education and our students weathered the student loan crunch through September," said NAICU President David L. Warren. "To varying degrees, individual students and institutions were impacted by the crunch, but no widespread access crisis materialized in the first half of the fall semester.

"However, the full-blown effects of the credit crunch and the nation's economic struggles are yet unknown," Warren said. "It is impossible to predict the possible future consequences of the nation's continuing economic struggles on students and colleges."