A New Offering for Mexico's Hopeful College Grads: Student Loans Lauren Villagran - SmartPlanet
go to original June 4, 2013

MEXICO CITY – Unlike in the U.S., where student loans are run of the mill, few Mexicans have access to the financing that could help them pay for a college education.

Mexicans aspiring to middle-class status increasingly see university education as a must. Yet an over-saturated public university system accepts just a fraction of applicants, and many aspirants lack the means to pay for private college. That’s where FINAE, an institution specializing in financing higher education, comes in.

In a credit market for higher education still in its infancy, FINAE is serving a population that traditional banks have mostly ignored: students who are the first in their family to attend college, whose families fall into a bracket with middle-class aspirations, if not income.

Parents think about education like an inheritance, says Celia Guerra, director of financial aid at Mexico’s private Universidad Panamericana, which facilitates FINAE credits. She says parents tell her: “Since I don’t have money, all I can leave my children is an education so that they can get ahead on their own.”

Read the rest at SmartPlanet

Photo: Flickr/Gabriel Flores Romero

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!