Nissen, Sylvia2024-05-012018-10-052019978-3-319-96321-1https://hdl.handle.net/10182/17165This chapter considers the potential of student loan debt to be a subject that divides students more than it brings them together politically. Debt was not an easy topic for New Zealand students to discuss, and I suggest part of this diffculty was variation in their experiences. I provide a framework of five student experiences of debt in New Zealand: ‘lucky’ students, pragmatists, investors, deliberate deferrers and strugglers. By tracing the contours of these experiences, I argue the New Zealand case highlights the risk that student debt becomes framed in individual terms of ‘me’ and ‘them’, with student feelings of shame, regret and frustration considered a matter of private responsibility, rather than different facets of a shared, public issue.pp.19-40, 5 chapters© 2019 The Author(s)student experiencesdebtshamepersonal responsibilityempathyStudent Loans: An awkward subjectBook Chapter10.1007/978-3-319-96322-8_2978-3-319-96322-8