Abstract

The cost of students’ loans defaulting has lead to a serious discussion among participants. Substantial attention has been made on the students’ loans and its impact on higher education finances while researches on students’ loans defaults have not been taken for more than a decade. Therefore this study examines the influence of students’ loans borrowers’ characteristics on default rate in Tanzania by taking into consideration the background characteristics termed as pre-college measures, these factors includes age, gender and attitude.

This study was conducted in Dar es salaam region, were by five universities from the region formed the basis of the population and respondents encompasses only students who were loans beneficiaries from these universities/colleges. Data were collected from 150 respondents. Data collected were analyzed using Software Package for Statistical Science (SPSS) and the techniques used for data analysis were regression and correlation.

The study concluded that age, gender and attitude has an influence on the students’ loans default rate. The study also recommends that higher education students’ loans board (HESLB) should conduct an attitude tests among loans applicants before loans provision by using personal interview and observation by competent psychologists on behavioural science by conducting psychomotor test to understand the attitude among the loans applicants, those with negative attitude should be declared ineligible for students’ loans. Age should be given priority by HESLB before loans provision only applicants with the age of 18-24 years should be considered as eligible for students’ loans. Strict rules and regulation against males applicants should be instituted by HESLB to ensure their ability and willingness to repay back the loans for instance presence of genuine grantor and adequate collateral security. Students’ loans beneficiaries should be educated by HESLB to reduce confusion on repayment process.

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