Gender and racial gaps in student shadow debts.
Description
This exploratory study examines unpaid institutional balances sent to collections, a form of student shadow debt that is not visible in traditional loan-based measures of higher education debt. Using records from a regional Midwest institution, the paper studies which students are most likely to carry these unpaid bursar balances after leaving school.
The evidence shows that underrepresented minority students and female students face substantially higher odds of having unpaid institutional balances sent to collections. The paper argues that institutions should treat shadow debt as both a student-success issue and a debt-collection equity issue.
What this paper contributes.
Brings institutional balances into debt analysis.
The paper centers unpaid bursar bills that can block reenrollment, transfer, and financial recovery even when they are absent from loan data.
Links collections outcomes to student demographics.
The analysis shows disproportionate exposure among underrepresented minority and female students at the studied institution.
Frames collections as an institutional practice.
The findings point to the need to examine how account balances become collection events and whether those processes reproduce inequity.
Supports earlier financial intervention.
The paper motivates targeted outreach before unpaid balances become a barrier to persistence or future enrollment.