"The Education Department's direct-lending program has seen a 43-percent jump in business already this academic year, after a series of private lenders stopped offering government-backed student loans," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "The rush to direct lending may also have been spurred by media reports raising doubts about the ability of banks and other private loan companies to participate in the system of federally guaranteed loans. Such reports often blurred the distinction between federally subsidized loans and higher-cost private loans, which students often pursue after have reached their annual borrowing limits under the federal program. Loan companies realized their warnings could lead some colleges into the direct-lending program, but felt they owed students their best assessment of conditions, said Kevin Bruns, executive director of America's Student Loan Providers, an industry lobby group."