My mother just went through this BS. She applied and got accepted to a college, got a Govt. loan..2 months after starting the college closed it's doors, no notice, nothing, she showed up for class and the doors were locked and a sign in the window. She had over $16g's in loans. After almost a yr, she was absolved of all debt, the state found out that this particular college knew it was financially failing, months before my mother applied, along with falsifying documents and signing up homeless for more Govt. subsidies to name a few things, and ruled that she, and many others were defrauded. Many education loans are govt backed and you can only get them by meeting certain criteria, one of which is going to a school that meets certain govt. standards. If the Govt. gives a loan with that stipulation, it should be up to the Govt. to ensure these colleges are meeting their imposed standards. If not, the Govt., as well as the schools promising certain outcomes, aren't holding up their end of the agreement, therefore it should not be the burden of the loan holder who made every attempt to satisfy the contract, rather the parties who willingly did not follow said contract. I see it as a failure of Govt and they are mostly responsible, I know that puts burden on the whole, but the whole allow the govt to be wasteful and inefficient.
I see the point about the loan holder making a separate contract with the financial institution for the loan than the contract with the college, having to personally be responsible for the loan, and going after the college for reimbursement..but this isn't reality and if we took this attitude these colleges would continue to do this, financial destroying tens of thousands, if not more.