Students at Michigan's public universities bogged down in debt

The pricetag: $1.8 billion.

That's the amount of student loans taken out by students at Michigan's 15 public universities during the 2009-2010 academic year, according to an analysis published Thursday by Bridge Magazine.

University of Michigan student activity on the Diag.

That number is 49 percent more than it was four years ago, when students of Michigan's public universities amassed $1.2 billion in loan debt.

Bridge asserts that the state's total student loan debt is in the realm of $30 billion or "the equivalent of more than 20 years’ worth of state appropriations for higher education."

The average 2010 senior at a state university graduated with $25,675 in student loans, which Bridge says is the 11th-highest student debt load in the U.S.

The report follows another article from Bridge that said Michigan's public universities are among the most expensive in the U.S.

Read the full Bridge article here.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.

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