EL VALOR EDUCATIVO DEL DEPORTE EN LA

Education loans are a central component of the services provided by agents and counsellors, as well as the international education industry at large. In India, education loans worth US$3.5 billion (25,000 crore rupees) were disbursed in 2013-2016 (Dubbudu, 2016). Agents and counsellors are often the first point of contact for prospective students to discuss financial aspects of international education, including obtaining an educational bank loan. In this study, only one SoBo elite student reported that they were planning to obtain an education loan, and this student was quick to explain that this was because their parents wanted to instil fiscal responsibility rather than because they could not otherwise afford to purchase a foreign degree. This section thus focuses on prospective students from suburban striver families who tend to imagine that they will easily obtain

employment in the host country that will allow them to repay their loan with ease. However, existing literature on international students and debt suggests that repaying loans might not be as ‘risk free’ as prospective suburban striver students imagine.30

In recent years, the often-substantial bank loans that many non-Western students take in order to fund their international education has increasingly drawn the attention of scholars (Thomas, 2017; Baas, 2007, 2014; Findlay et al., 2017; for domestic Indian context see also Varman, Sana & Skålén, 2011; Varghese & Manoj, 2013). Thomas’s (2017) recent article on debt, precarity, and Indian international students is of particular relevance here. Discussing the role that debt plays in the experiences of Indian ‘middle class’ students at a college in New York City, Thomas finds that their ability to access education loans “not only meant the promise of higher education but also the status that a degree at a U.S. university represents” (2017: 1880). However, Thomas and others (Baas, 2007, 2014; Robertson, 2015; Findlay et al., 2017) have argued that education loans often leave students in a precarious position in which they must obtain work overseas to repay their loans. Baas (2014) notes that his participants experienced ‘considerable stress’ and were in a ‘vulnerable position’ because they had to obtain work in Australia in order to repay their loans. Thomas (2017) adds that, for most Indian students, education loans are attached to family assets, so they experienced additional pressure to ensure that they repay the loans on time so as not to jeopardise the entire family’s financial security (see also Tran, 2016). What is overlooked in this body of literature is that there exist different ‘types’ of Indian international students who have very different financial experiences of international education. Scholars often refer to ‘the middle class’ without interrogating what this means or who it includes and excludes. This section highlights the importance taking a nuanced approach to theorising class status when talking about education loans, arguing that this is yet another instance in which localised micro-categories of class shape the experiences of prospective international students.

In the prospective student sample, almost 40% (10) had taken an education loan from an Indian bank and all of these students were from suburban striver families. As

30 _{For general literature on risk and transnational mobility see, for example Williams & Baláž,} 2012, 2013; Hernández-Carretero & Carling, 2012.

mentioned above, SoBo elite participants had rarely taken education loans, presumably because their families possess sufficient economic capital to cover the cost of tuition and additional living expenses. As Chapter Seven will discuss, education loans often dictate the return trajectories of international students and/or the circumstances under which they return. SoBo elites did not have loans, so they were also assumed to take their education less ‘seriously’ (see Chapters Six, Seven and Eight). For participants, the ability to study without a loan versus the need for a loan and then a job to repay that loan were important components of a broader imaginary of different class categories’ approaches to international education. Priyanka, an education agent and mother with two sons studying in Canada, explained the differences between the ‘rich class’ and ‘middle class’ on the basis of either having or not having an education loan:

Rich-class will never have a loan, right. Middle-class students care about their studies because they have a loan, so they need to do things to make sure they can pay back that loan. See, at the back of their minds they know that we have to ‘make it’. Our parents will not be able to do it, though they will maintain how much, whatever they can, but the parents will need the help of their children.

Priyanka’s comment highlights the suburban strivers’ dependence on working overseas after graduating. She suggests that, for those who fail to ‘make it’, repaying loans will be very difficult or impossible for the family in India. Despite the employment imperative described by Priyanka, suburban striver participants consistently insisted that they did not perceive any risk in taking out a loan because they were certain they would obtain paid work upon graduation.

Loans taken by suburban striver families were intended to partially finance international education. Remaining expenses were covered either by parents’ savings or divestment of assets such as shares or property. In most cases, a student’s family had saved enough for the first semester’s fees and living expenses and a low-interest education loan was taken to finance the rest of the education. Participants were often reluctant to reveal the size of their loans, so reliable data on this is not available within the present sample, though one can reasonably assume that most of these loans were upwards of US$14,000 (Rs. 10 lakhs), with the highest possible loan that a student can take capped

by the Indian government at US$28,000 (Rs. 20 lakhs).31 For students from suburban striver families, working overseas was a way to gain valuable workplace experience (discussed further in Chapter Six), but was also – importantly – a way to recover the money that their family had invested in their education. Contrary to my pre-fieldwork assumptions about how students would feel about taking out substantial loans to pay for their education, the vast majority of prospective students who were taking a loan assured me that they perceived almost no risks in being able to pay off their loans because they anticipated getting a well-paid job overseas with relative ease.

Suburban strivers assumed that some destinations would be easier than others to obtain work as a graduate. At the time of interviewing, the USA was particularly popular among students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)fields because they were given longer visas than students in other disciplines, allowing them more time to work towards repaying their loans (though these visa entitlements have since been walked back, see Merrick, 2018; Kably, 2018). This was a popular selling point among agents and counsellors, who added that more time spent working would create better likelihood for sponsorship toward permanent employment and further career mobility. Fazlur, an education agent catering to suburban striver students, explained the value of visas with relatively long work rights attached:

See, when you have a loan then you have to think very carefully about things. You can't just do this and that. … A lot of the guys we see like the US because you get a longer visa if you’re into STEM subjects. So they think, ‘Ok good, this will give me extra time to figure out and pay back my loan’. … Then they start looking at, well, maybe whether this extra working time will get me a permanent job over there.

That the USA is a particularly attractive destination for STEM students because of the longer visa time was echoed by prospective students, who also imagined the prestige of possessing an American degree would propel their careers. Jignesh, 22, a prospective student from a suburban striver family, explained that he had chosen to study a Master of Electrical Engineering in the US because he is eligible for a longer visa, which would

31 _{Some private banks offer loans of up to US$70,000 or Rs. 50 lakhs, but the vast majority of} students take education loans from government-run banks. See Nathan, 2018; Careers 360, 2018 (these numbers are consistent with those provided on individual bank websites as of August 2018).

allow him enough time to gain adequate exposure that he felt was crucial to further career mobility:

I would work there for two years or so, and then it’s easy to get that [loan] money back, so I don’t need to worry because I have the visa. And with the education that I’ll get, the return on investment is very high. When I look ten years down the line, if I have a degree from this college in the US, I can go anywhere in the world and I can get employed. It’s that effective. So, like, a small amount of investment can actually give you a lot of returns back when you consider the larger picture. … Everybody knows the value of a US degree. So once you have an education from the United States, you can go anywhere in the world.

Jignesh appeared certain that his endeavours will produce successful results and did not seem concerned about potential pitfalls, such as changing immigration policies or shifts in the job market (both of which have arguably occurred since I spoke to Jignesh in mid- 2016). His comments were similar to those of many STEM students going to the USA who believed their foreign degrees would carry significant value, leading to ‘easy’ return on investment and recovery of loan monies. Jignesh, like many prospective suburban striver students, was confident that there is an almost-guaranteed pathway between obtaining a foreign degree and gaining well-paid employment overseas.

This reflects the argument made by Bourdieu (1984), mentioned earlier, that “newcomers” to educational qualifications are more likely to “expect” degrees to yield privilege that they had observed when they were excluded from accessing these qualifications. Suburban strivers’ lack of anxiety possibly arises from assurances that agents (and counsellors) give their clients about their ability to find work after they graduate. However, research conducted with international students in host countries suggests that participants’ optimism is potentially misplaced. Thomas (2017: 1876) finds that the desire for “global elite status” places international students in perilous positions in which they must confront the consequences of “exorbitant student loans … job insecurity, and precarious working conditions” (see also Baas, 2014; Findlay et al., 2017; Tran, 2016).

I presented my scepticism to professionals working within the banking industry, who assured me that risks associated with taking an education loan were controlled by bank and government policies. An employee from a large privately owned bank, who

held a senior position within the educational loans department in New Delhi, explained that education loans are low interest, do not have to be repaid immediately, and have a low default rate. He explained that this is because the risks are carefully calculated by parents and the bank based on the earning potential of the student:

Because they're mostly getting a technical degree … it’s a calculated thing. The parents know that he’s going to start a job that will pay him at least US$80,000 a year. So if they send him to these-these-these schools, which are at this cost, then they know they are covered in this amount of time. It’s fully structured. The parents save up a certain amount. It’s calculated. So that’s why, when they're taking out the loan, there’s no issue. Because they all go there and get jobs.

He also added that the banks are highly selective in deciding which loans to approve, which further reduces risk:

I would estimate that we approve 35-40% of loan applications, which also indicates that there is a large number of people who are aspiring to obtain an education that is beyond their means. But those who are getting loans, it means they can afford.

While bank employees were keen to demonstrate the rigour of their loaning processes, recently released reports from the Reserve Bank of India show that there has been a 142% increase in education loan defaults since 2014 (Mathew, 2017). However, families also take out loans for domestic tertiary education, so this number represents a rise in loan defaults that are not specific to the international education sector (see Mathews, 2017). Nonetheless, a significant rise in loan defaults likely indicates that Indian students are not obtaining the level of income that they anticipate will arise from their tertiary qualifications (a trend that has been similarly noted by Jeffrey, 2010; Jeffrey, Jeffery & Jeffery, 2008). This may imply that, in line with those who apply for loans who the bank deems ‘beyond their means’, aspirations that are attached to (international) education may not be entirely realistic. Furthermore, this response suggests that banks take the earning potential of the prospective student into consideration when granting a loan, which is inherently risky given the volatile nature of both immigration policies and job markets in host countries. This unevenness speaks to the different class positions of suburban strivers as compared to SoBo elites. For suburban strivers, international education represents an aspirational pathway in which better livelihoods and lifestyles can possibly be realised by taking calculated risks. For SoBo elites, by contrast, international education is

presupposed as they transition to adulthood and their existing economic capital is sufficient to ensure that risk calculations are not a component of their international education, which means that they have a very different experience of studying overseas compared to suburban strivers.