Education Loan Growth That Peaked in 2024 Slows This Year

 Chennai: Since the pandemic, education loans have seen double-digit growth with the pace peaking in 2024. The number of women availing education loans rose by 27.9 in 2024. However, stricter immigration policies of the US and Canada saw the growth slowing in 2025.

There has been a rapid rise in education personal loans availed by both men and women after the pandemic. Education loans availed by women had seen a negative growth of 0.1 per cent in 2021. In the subsequent quarters, education loans saw a steep rise. By 2024, the growth peaked at 27.9 per cent, as per the data of Capitalmind.

In the case of men, education loans saw a de-growth of 4.2 per cent in 2021. By 2024, the growth peaked at 16.5 per cent.

According to Capitalmind, women are taking two times more education loans compared to pre-pandemic levels. While the average loan amount has almost doubled, the number of accounts has gone up to 8 lakh.

This helped the share of outstanding credit by women students rise since the pandemic. It stood at 33 per cent of the total education loans in 2020 and moved up to 39 per cent at the end of 2024.

Apart from banks, NBFCs also have been witnessing an exponential rise in the past few years. NBFCs had Rs 9000 crore AUM in education loans in 2021. This rose to Rs 41,800 crore in 2024 at a CAGR of 65 per cent, according to Crisil.

Further, the entry of several fintechs also has led to the growth in the market. Fintech start-ups such as MoneyView, PaySense and InCred extend education loans alongside a range of other credit services.

However, Capitalmind finds that the education loan growth has slightly moderated in 2025. From 27.9 per cent in 2024, the growth in education loans availed by women has come down to 22.2 per cent in 2025 and that by men is down from 16.5 per cent to 15.1 per cent. This is mainly due to the decline in the number of students moving to Canada and the US due to stricter immigration policies.