FACTORS AFFECTING EDUCATIONAL LOAN DEPENDENCY IN ASEAN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v7si4.1547Keywords:
educational loan, financial aid and poverty, educational financial aid, Malaysia, ThailandAbstract
The challenges concerning the stability of household finances and the sustainable future of national student loan programs have emerged due to the growing dependence on education loans that have resulted from the escalating cost of education in the ASEAN regions. Focusing on Malaysia and Thailand, this paper investigates the dominant variables that influence the dependence on education loans in ASEAN, which include household income, tertiary education enrollment, the rates of poverty, unemployment, and inflation. This research uses the empirical approach through multiple regression analysis to determine the connecting factors of dependency on educational loans and their socioeconomic and macroeconomic variables based on annual panel data ranging from 1997 to 2022. Some of the reliable secondary sources of the data collected come from World Bank, Department of Statistics of Malaysia, PTPTN Annual Reports and the documents issued by the Thailand Student Loan Fund. Some of the tests on preliminary research which ensure the reliability of the model come from descriptive statistics, correlation tests as well as diagnostic tests. The knowledge from this study would benefit policymakers, providers of education loans and post-secondary educational institution policymakers as they attempt to develop a sustainable financial structure for post-secondary education and improve student financial aid structures to reduce the excessive burden of loans taken by many post-secondary students.
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Copyright (c) 2026 NOR AKILA MOHD KASSIM, NORLIZA CHE YAHYA, BALKIS HARIS, RATNA ,ULYANY
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