Biden leaves ‘complicated legacy’ on higher education

Times Higher Education

Patrick Jack

January 17, 2025

Progress on Joe Biden’s signature student debt forgiveness scheme but disappointment on his civil rights agenda in his final days in office was symbolic of a presidency which leaves a “complicated legacy” on higher education, according to experts.

Biden’s grand attempts at a wider student debt forgiveness plan have been repeatedly blocked by the courts, though he did succeed in wiping out about $183.6 billion (£150 billion) in debt. And with an additional 150,000 student loans forgiven this week, the outgoing US president brought the total number who have had their debt cancelled to over 5 million.

“A number of those programmes may well continue on a sort of quiet autopilot into Trump 2.0,” Andrew Rudalevige, Thomas Brackett Reed professor of government at Bowdoin College, told Times Higher Education.

“But student loan forgiveness had no structural impact on the affordability of or access to higher education.”

With Republicans likely to focus on the “illegal” amount of debt forgiven and left-wing Democrats claiming he should have done more, Robert Kelchen, professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said this was a good example of how President Biden will be remembered.

“President Biden is likely to have a complicated legacy on higher education that is interpreted differently across the political spectrum,” he said.

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