Akademik

n.

1. A mortgage that covers the cost of a student's university or college education and that is paid back over an extended period, similar to a residential mortgage. 2. he debt that a student holds at the end of their university or college education.

• "Gordonstoun, the exclusive private school where Prince Charles was educated, is planning to offer its own 20-year 'education mortgage' in a bid to attract more students from lower-income families."

— lPeter Jones, "Learn Now, Pay Later at Gordonstoun," Scotland on Sunday," February 11, 2001

• "First-year teacher Chris Lippay said he spends 80 percent of his take-home pay on rent and student loans. Whether that is significant depends in part on how extravagant he has been in providing himself with housing. But it is no surprise and highly significant that he and so many other college graduates in America today began their careers with a heavy education mortgage that did not apply to previous generations."

— Bill Hall, "The scandal of student loans in higher education," Lewiston Morning Tribune, April 25, 1999

• "The commission notes the overall growth in college

enrollments, which have been especially dramatic in community

colleges; the shrinking size of federal and state financial aid

to students; and the subsequent increases in student loans and

accumulation of debt. According to the commission, these factors

have resulted in 'education mortgages,' where students begin

their careers in debt and are unable to invest in education for

the next generation."

—"Rethinking Investment In Higher Ed: It's [sic] Time Has Come," Daily Report Card, April 3, 1995

• "When people buy a home the vast majority take out a 30-year mortgage because they can't afford to pay for it all at once. Why not do the same for education costs? I would like to see this 'education mortgage' funded with a dedicated income tax with very flexible terms but also teeth to ensure it is repaid."

—Paul Kuzia Redmond, "Paying For Higher Education — Consider An 'education mortgage'," The Seattle Times, February 19, 1995

Let's pause here for just a second to savor the rich irony of the extraneous apostrophe in the title of the first of the earliest citations.