Why insuring your education loan is significant

The murder of an Indian student in Britain last December brings into sharp focus the necessity for insuring an education loan if you are going abroad for expensive higher education.Indian student Anuj Bivde's horrific and senseless murder in Manchester on December 26, 2011 sent shock waves across UK as well as in India. The victim arrived in Britain from India last September to study microelectronics at Lancaster University. His death has shattered his family. It has also, most likely, landed them with the unfair burden of having to continue to pay for the education loan his family took to send him to Britain.

Parents, especially from middle class backgrounds, who send their children abroad to study, take huge loans from banks to finance these studies and also, in some cases, re-mortgage their homes.When such a sudden tragedy happens, it could result in huge additional financial implications for the family who will have to pay back the loan. The prospect of paying back thousands of pounds/dollars in these circumstances can be daunting, if not almost impossible in some cases. Parents and families often plan to pay back an education loan when their child starts on a career made more successful by these further studies. The same situation can also arise in times of economic difficulties like we witnessed when recession struck in 2008.Despite such risks, is taking an insurance against education loans a common scenario amongst Indian students? The answer, sadly, is: No!