Essay Example on Student Loans: Necessity or Misuse?

The fact that student loans are essential to the support of the studies of the students may at times be misused. The student loans are important to allow the student's whose economic conditions and are in a position of not raising enough cash for their academic programs to be able to acquire education as well. It is important to consider the availing of the loans to the disposal of the students to make them be easily reached by the very students. Most of the students who need financial support opt for the loans to cater for their tuition fees and even upkeep in the colleges and universities (Heckman et, al. 51-65). Some other grants may also be given in the form of bursaries to such students even those in the primary level to allow them to acquire basic education. It worth to note that the loans are excellent and the intention is to ensure that all people get access to school as a human want that will help them grow as people and to promote the growth of the country's economy. The loans may be offered by the bodies set by the governments, the financial institutions or even an international organization with interest to give support to the students to study.

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The fact of the matter is that the loans in most cases are to be for those who are not in a position to raise enough money to support their education due to challenges like poverty, death or disease of the parents or well-wishers or general failure to find financial support to cater for your studies. This tells that the loans should be offered to those who need them only if anything. This otherwise is not easy to determine who is genuine and who is not and hence giving the loan to any individual who makes an application for the same (National 46-61). The ease of accessing this loan is likely to make the students misuse this money and even misuse it in several ways which may not be very advisable for them at all and the end refund it.

In cases where the students get access to the loans while they have alternative sources of money cater for their education cost, it is evident that this money will not be used for the purpose it is meant. Such students will use this money to do the other things it is not intended for. The fact that the students get this money as a surplus in their accounts will lead to them misappropriating it because of the excessiveness of the money for them to manage. Some may because of too much money decide to use it for drinking or even getting into drug abuse generally since they have the money and no responsibility accompanying it. Managing what looks like too much money to the student who does not need this money and gets it will be a challenge, and that is what will cause the stem of misappropriation of the funds (Cleary, et al. 15-33). The whole thing here comes with the immaturity of the students and less responsibility that the student has and hence having the challenge of handling the money they acquire from the financial institutions. This is only possible if the issuance of the loan is made easy such that others may get it by just trying and not committed to get it and hence will use it because they have and not because they need it.

The real intention of the financiers is not met because the reasons for getting the money differ from the purposes intended. This is therefore disastrous to many students who are found within this bracket and exposes them to spoilage as they continue growing.

At the same time, most of the students who to this money are sent may not have had a tough of such huge sums of money in the past. This will make them, therefore, feel like what they have is too much. With this notion, they are likely to find themselves using the money in otherwise activities thinking they still have much money while it is not the case (Heckman et, al. 51-65). This has been evident when some students have been forced to suspend their studies after having taken the loan and realizing they have misused the money and are left with no option but to call off their studies for a time (National 46-61). This is dangerous since some may fail to get the money to recover the part of the money they squandered and this may result in the termination of their studies completely. This only comes with the ease of acquiring the loan which at times make the students lose focus on their academics and end up being messed.

Another way in which the ease of loans to students will lead to the misappropriation of the funds is where the parents are not necessarily required or the guardians to chip in for verification of the whole process of the loan approval. In this case, the student may decide to take the loan without informing the parent or the guardian and hence using it for other reasons apart from education. In this case, the guardian will be providing everything as far the demands of the studies of the student bare concerned without knowing that the student has other sources of money that they get from the loans. Some students in the past have tried this, and some even claimed that they wanted the money to do business as the parents take care of the other necessities. Some succeed while others fail in the plans that they have with the money. Regardless of the success or failure in this projects, it is called a misappropriation since the actual use of the money is not the intended use hence resulting to losses because it may not be easy to track such money after giving them out (Cleary, et al. 15-33).

Sidoti et, al. (64-79) reason that the ease of access of tuition loans to students may also lead to misappropriations in cases where the students take the loans and use them for some other reasons apart from those are related to academics. The loan money can be used to do such things as paying fees, buying meals, paying commuting fares to class, buying books and any other that is in support of the academics of the student. When this money is used for anything else apart from that which is not related to studies, then it is referred to as misappropriation. In some cases, the ease of access to the loan has to lead to misappropriations of the money when the individuals apply for money and fail to report to schools. This is possible when the access to this loan is not strict and not demanding the full proof to qualify for the loans. The students should be followed up after taking the loans to ensure that the subsequent access is only given on a guarantee that the student has been in the system and is continuing with the studies at the same.

There should be a strict follow up on the money after the completion of studies by the students. This gives the pressure to the students who take the loan and ensure the loans are repaid. This will help in controlling the misappropriation by ensuring that the students become responsible for taking the loan. In views of Norum (269-275), with penalties involved in the taking of the loan, the students will opt for the alternatives of getting money rather than taking the loan. The ease of access to the loans without a strict strategy of retrieving the money, then there would consider a possibility of misappropriation which will happen as a result of people failing to repay the loans hence making it go like a waste when individuals fail to repay the loans. At the same time, the students may decide to make applications to join certain schools only to acquire this loan. This will lead to misappropriation of the loan money. The misappropriation will also when such individuals who take the loan are allowed to take the loan, and later on they decide to change their details without informing the department responsible for the administration of the loan and hence in such situations they seem to go scot-free without paying the loan which will lead to the embezzlement of such.

The ease of access to education loans will also lead to the misappropriation of such monies by the students when they find it as the only source of remedying the poor conditions and status of their homes and families. Some students can decide to take the loan and use it to build good houses for their parents or even for themselves to relieve them of a given class of living. This may be successful or not depending on the strategy put. The loan that is given to the student is proportional to the amount that the education of the student requires. This will, therefore, mean that the amount that is given is estimated to be enough to sustain and support the educational process only. Some students may at this level go to the extent of limiting their uses to support their families. This has a meaning that they may forgo some of the uses that they should have used the money for and having the full intention and story changed. This may limit their performance because of the insufficiency of the resources. Some students at times may end up overusing the money to the extent that they find themselves with a limited amount that is not enough to keep them in school after they complete such projects (Cleary, et al. 15-33). Never the less, even if the project succeeds and the student remain and continue with the studies, or they fail to continue, the fact is it is a misappropriation of the money since the money has been used for the purpose it was not intended for.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is a prudent idea to provide education loans to the students who are unable to get enough resources to facilitate their studies for one reason or the other. The most important thing is to evaluate and ensure that strategies which will help the students use the money well are put in place by enlightening them and interviewing them to verify if they need of worth the loan.

Works cited

Cleary, T. Anne, et al. "Educational uses of tests with disadvantaged students." American Psychologist 30.1 (1975): 15-33.

Heckman, Stuart J., and John E. Grable. "Testing the role of parental debt attitudes, student income, dependency status, and financial knowledge have in shaping financial self-efficacy among college students." College Student Journal 45.1 (2011): 51-65.

National Research Council. Making money matter: Financing America's schools. National Academies Press, (1999):46-61.

Norum, Pamela S. "The role of time preference and credit card usage in compulsive buying behaviour." International Journal of Consumer Studies 32.3 (2008): 269-275.

Sidoti, Phillip M., and Raj Devasagayam. "Credit cards and college students: Effect of materialism and risk attitude on misuse." The Marketing Management Journal 20.2 (2010): 64-79.