The average student loan balance has more than doubled over the past decade.At 24, Emilia Heinonen says she wishes she had never taken out a student loan. Photo: Jere Sanaksenaho / YleYle News14:56For 24-year-old Emilia Heinonen, taking out a student loan has become a source of regret."I wouldn't do it again at any price. It's simply too big a burden, and the cost has become far too high," Heinonen told Yle.She graduated from Turku University of Applied Sciences in 2024 with around 15,000 euros in student debt accumulated during her four-year engineering degree.Heinonen is far from alone. Social insurance agency Kela paid interest subsidies to a record number of struggling student loan borrowers last year, with total payouts exceeding 8.6 million euros."Interest subsidies are being used more than before because borrowing costs were exceptionally low for many years," said Mari Jaakkola, legal counsel at Kela's overpayment recovery centre. "When annual interest payments amounted to only a few dozen euros, even low-income borrowers could usually cover them without applying for assistance," she explained.Student loans in Finland are backed by a state guarantee. Over the past two years, Kela has repaid a record volume of defaulted student loans to banks under that guarantee. Last year, it paid more than 108 million euros on behalf of nearly 9,000 student borrowers.Kela foots interestThe agency may cover the interest costs on a student loan if a borrower's income falls below a specified threshold.For borrowers without children, the monthly income limit is 1,662 euros, while higher thresholds apply to households with children.As student financial aid has been pared back, many students have increasingly relied on borrowing to meet basic living expenses.The average student loan balance has more than doubled over the past decade. In 2024, the maximum monthly loan available to students was increased from 650 to 850 euros. By last year, the average outstanding balance had climbed to more than 12,000 euros.Finnish banks have also noticed a rapid growth in student borrowing. Lenders including Nordea and S-Bank report that the amount of student loans being drawn down has continued to increase this year."A 40,000-euro student loan is no longer unusual for a university student," noted Mari Govenius, head of lending at S-Bank.