Items such as parking tickets, library fines, decades-old tuition balances and debt created as a result of institutional error, can have devastating impact on students’ trajectories in higher education.
A new report titled, “Stranded Credits: A Matter of Equity,” from Ithaka S+R, explores the lived experiences of students and staff familiar with institutional debt, also known as stranded credits. This phenomenon particularly impacts students of color, first-generation and low-income students. The report defines stranded credits as academic credits achieved by students that they cannot access due to an unpaid balance.
Stranded credits not only impact students’ academic progress, they can also thwart career trajectories because they are unable to access their transcripts due to unpaid debt. Researchers also found this phenomenon also has a detrimental impact on mental health and wellbeing. 
Dr. Sosanya Jones
The report’s authors note that research shows that obtaining a bachelor’s degree can significantly increase earning potential, but stranded credits is a barrier toward completion. Students of color, in particular, continue to encounter obstacles to degree attainment, with data showing they are disproportionately negatively affected by student debt.
Dr. Sosanya Jones, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Howard University and the lead author of the study, sought to bring the students’ voices forward on this important topic.
“It’s very important that we tell people’s lived experiences, so we better understand how they’re actually experiencing some of the phenomenon that we discuss,” said Jones. “It was powerful to hear the ways this policy of holding transcripts, holding degrees essentially hostage for payment, stops students in their tracks, not only in their academic careers, but even trying to find other options, like transferring or even getting a job or a scholarship. It reverberated through everything.”
Researchers interviewed students and staff from five institutions at diverse geographic locations. Despite reaching out to a wide range of possible participants, the students who took part were all students of color and predominantly female.
