Study: 44% of social security users say "No, I have not used a gov. social program."

[Tellos Athenaios]

Student loans are welfare, even if they are not a gift. They're an investment from society into itself which is what welfare is all about: a system of rules that taps riches from its individuals (taxes) to redistribute them as an investment in itself. Be that to prevent people from starving/going hungry (food stamps) to student loans which are much more akin to how a venture capitalist bankrolls a start up. You have to remember that these loans are to be had even for people who would otherwise never persuade any financial institution to lend them equivalent amounts of money.

Student loans in Australia are from the government. You have to pay them back once you start earning over a threshold amount and for most the interest is indexed ie CPI only.

Here it's 2 years after you end your studies, with a monthly amount calculated over your tax-able income 2 years prior. Thus if you earned virtually nothing (i.e. student job) you start with something like €100,- a month. When you get a manage to maintain a proper job, 2 years later you will find the monthly amount to be something like say €500. It may be that in the USA the interest rates are comparatively harsh (here it's 2.4%), and you are liable until the day you die (here the remainder might be waived after 10 or so years I think).

For reference, IIRC a bachelor's programme is about €1800,- a year after subsidy and a master's program can be about €5000,- after subsidy a year to pay the institution alone (but you only have to pay a single institution thus if you attend two you only owe one of them a fee if you can provide a proof of enrollment to the other) that is quite some loan: the actual costs of a University for students outside of the EU could be about €10K a year for a bachelor's programme.