Students who enter the "real world" with high levels of debt are being set up for failure, it has been suggested.

Former Columbia College Chicago student Kelly Lynch is one individual who is having to deal with the debt repayments following an expensive education - and he did not receive his degree from the institution.

Reporting Mr Lynch's predicament, social commentary news provider In These Times claims that the decision by the US' largest student loan lender Sallie Mae to suspend a loan consolidation program has left a number of young people in financial peril.

Some student borrowers now have higher-than-expected interest rates to pay on their college loans.

Commenting on the matter, Mr Lynch said: "What good are well-educated kids who, right out of the cradle, have major financial obligations before most own a house, a car or know where the nearest grocery store is?"

Students in the UK only start paying off their loans when their gross earnings total £1,250 ($2,485) a month or £288 per week.

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