Average student debt down at UI, ISU, UNI

Average student loan debt upon graduation fell slightly last year at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

For those students who graduated with student loan debt in 2009, the average was $22,684 at the UI, $29,767 at ISU and $24,123 at UNI. Those averages are all slight declines of $50 to $150 from the previous year at the three schools.

The numbers are part of the annual student financial aid report that will go to the state Board of Regents at a June 9 meeting in Vinton at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School.

The national average student debt in 2008, the most recent year available, was $20,167. Iowa ranked No. 2 nationally for average student debt in the 2008 Project on Student Debt report, behind only the District of Columbia.

Reducing student debt and addressing college affordability are priorities of the regents and university leaders.

According to the report, 39 percent of UI graduates in 2009 did not have student loan debt, compared to 27.5 percent with no debt at ISU and 20.4 percent at UNI. Nationally, 38 percent of  seniors in 2007-08 graduated without debt from public four-year institutions.

The average need-based indebtedness – a measure that looks at the loans awarded to the neediest students - was $11,981 at the UI in 2009, $13,234 at ISU and $12,798 at UNI.