Education is one undeniable pathway from poverty. Research has consistently shown the positive effects of higher education level on lifetime earnings. Financing to achieve this can lead to student loan debt, which has become a crisis affecting financial and health wellbeing among some borrowers and disparities in higher education access further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the fact that access to higher education has been deemed a right in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the student loan crisis threatens access for some. Lack of ratification of the document by the U.S. further pushes the need for critical discussion. Therefore, the purpose of this narrative review was to examine the state of the student loan debt crisis and raise implications for policy. WorldCat, SocINDEX, and Academic Search Complete databases were searched utilizing a combination of key words associated with college student loans and debt, economic justice. Findings showed student loan debt, repayment challenges, and inequities in higher education access remain widespread. There is a need for more social work–based empirical research on student loan debt and social work engagement that promotes critical conversations utilizing an economic justice perspective. Implications for social work practice, policy, and research are discussed.

教育是摆脱贫困不可否认的途径之一。研究一致表明高等教育水平对终生收入有积极影响。为实现这一目标而进行的融资可能会导致学生贷款债务，这已成为影响一些借款人的财务和健康福祉的危机，并且 COVID-19 大流行进一步加剧了高等教育入学机会的差距。尽管《世界人权宣言》第 26 条将接受高等教育视为一项权利，但学生贷款危机仍威胁到一些人的接受高等教育的机会。美国未批准该文件进一步推动了批判性讨论的必要性。因此，这篇叙述性评论的目的是研究学生贷款债务危机的状况并提出对政策的影响。WorldCat、SocINDEX 和学术检索完整数据库使用与大学生贷款和债务、经济正义相关的关键词组合进行检索。调查结果显示，学生贷款债务、偿还挑战和高等教育机会不平等仍然普遍存在。需要对学生贷款债务和社会工作参与进行更多基于社会工作的实证研究，以促进利用经济正义视角的批判性对话。讨论了对社会工作实践、政策和研究的影响。