The 1990s witnessed a number of changes in the financing of higher education in the UK. The progressive replacement of the maintenance grant by a government-backed loan means that students are increasingly forced to accept debt as an integral part of university life. This book highlights the detrimental effects of these changes and considers their long-term consequences. Bridging the gap between current education policy debates and those relating to debt, money management and financial decision making, "Student debt": provides an insight into the causes and consequences of student debt through the use of focus groups, interviews and questionnaire surveys; draws out the theoretical and policy implications relating to different aspects of undergraduate borrowing; offers a comparative analysis of issues relating to student debt in the UK, Italy and France; covers a broad range of topics including money management styles, attitudes towards credit and debt, the psychological effects of student debt, and the student-bank relationship. This book should be of great interest to policy makers and social policy academics with an interest in financing higher education, money management in general, financial exclusion and financial literacy, and to anyone who is concerned about the impact of rising levels of debt on students' well being.

• Part I: Background: Introduction Adrian J. Scott, Alan Lewis and Stephen E.G. Lea
• Part II: The UK experience: More money than sense? Investigating student money management Mandy Morgan, Caroline E. Roberts and Paul Powdrill
• Student debt: Expecting it, spending it and regretting it Stephen E. G. Lea, Paul Webley and Guy Bellamy
• Student loans: The development of a new dependency culture? Adrian J. Scott and Alan Lewis
• The psychological effects of student debt Steve Stradling
• Part III: An international perspective: Student attitudes to debt: A cross-national study between Italy and the UK Gaia Vicenzi, Stephen E. G. Lea and Rino Rumiati
• Are students serious bankers? The nature of the student-bank relationship in the UK and France Will Lebens and Alan Lewis
• Part IV: Summing up: Theoretical and policy implications Adrian J. Scott, Alan Lewis and Stephen E. G. Lea.