“Maybe It’s a Necessary Burden”: Higher Education Practitioners’ Intro- and Extrospective Perspectives on the Student Loan Debt Crisis

Student loan debt held by borrowers in the United States, now exceeding $1.83 trillion, has reshaped higher education access and affordability, yet little is known about how practitioners who advise students make sense of this system while navigating their own borrowing experiences. Guided by Weick’s (1995) sensemaking framework, this qualitative study examines the introspective and extrospective perspectives of 30 higher education practitioners across diverse institutional contexts. Through semi-structured interviews, we explore how practitioners reconcile personal debt with professional responsibilities and interpret shifting student attitudes toward borrowing. Findings reveal pervasive ambivalence: loans are framed as a “necessary burden”—essential for educational and career mobility yet emotionally and financially constraining. Practitioners report growing student anxiety, early skepticism about loan value, and widespread financial literacy gaps. These insights underscore the ethical and emotional labor embedded in advising and highlight implications for policy, institutional practice, and professional development aimed at improving affordability and informed decision-making.