Although an American college degree remains a good investment on average — the higher earnings for most graduates justify the cost — millions of borrowers are in default on their loans.

Policy analysts generally agree on a need for reform, but not on which path policymakers should take. Can America learn anything from other nations? We gathered experts with a range of perspectives, from America and abroad, and asked them to compare the systems in Australia, Britain, Sweden and the United States.

We chose this grouping of nations because they highlight important differences both in loan repayment systems and in related policies such as tuition and loan limits, not necessarily because they all belong among the best systems in the world. In the spirit of March Madness, we devised a bracket-style tournament, seeding the countries so that those with more similar systems would meet in the semifinals.

Sweden vs. United States

Sweden and the United States differ in whether the monthly loan payment remains the same over time and in the number of years borrowers can repay their loans.