Michael Stratford, Chronicle of Higher Education: “The percentage of borrowers defaulting on their federal student loans within two years of beginning repayment rose again last year, though some default measurements appear to have stagnated, according to government data released on Friday. Of borrowers who entered repayment from October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2010 (the cohort for the 2010 fiscal year), 9.1 percent had defaulted by September 30, 2011, up from the 8.8-percent two-year default rate set the previous year. But expanding that tracking window by a year, which the department formally did for the first time this year, shows that 13.4 percent of borrowers who entered repayment during the 2009 fiscal year, or 489,040 people, defaulted within three years.”