The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently said it will examine the practice of colleges withholding students’ academic transcripts as a method to collect their outstanding debt. The agency said that use of such debt collection tactics “is particularly perplexing,” as they undermine students’ ability to obtain jobs or finish their degrees and thus hinder paying back what they owe. Institutions have come under fire for not releasing transcripts for students who owe nominal amounts of debt. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has called for colleges to abandon transcript holds, saying they disadvantage vulnerable students.
