Up to 450,000 former students who say their colleges deceived them are having federal student loans cancelled through the US borrower-defence programme. The relief matters because it offers redress to people who borrowed for courses marketed with allegedly false claims, while highlighting the long-running disputes over the federal government’s handling of such cases.

Borrower defence allows borrowers to seek loan discharge when institutions misled them about matters such as employment prospects, course quality or transferable credits. The cancellations stem from legal settlements and Education Department decisions involving largely for-profit colleges; affected borrowers may also receive refunds for payments made and have adverse credit records corrected.