A student loan type scheme to help out aviation students is very much a double edged sword. They have full funding for flight training in NZ and it means those who are limited by $$$ can still do what they dream of. However it also means that a lot of non committed people get in there and decide one day that it would be cool to wear a pretty uniform and be a pilot. So you get flight schools full of people that are never going to make it in aviation clocking up huge loans for no gain. A couple of long haired, pierced to hell guys dressed like hippies trying to do their CPL chopper licence i met come to mind here.
Another problem is that when these guys get out of flight school, with only 170-200 hours or whatever, they owe $45000 and their first flying job, if they can get one, pays absolutely stuff all. Of course if its a chopper licence, maybe with an instructor rating, we're talking 80-90K!!
While it enables everyone to fly all day every day and learn faster, therefore less hours, I reckon it has the flipside of exposing students to less varied conditions for life outside flight school. I myself took 4 and a half years to do my licence, paying for it as I went at the aeroclub while working as groundcrew and getting exposure to real-deal flying and I beleive it made it a LOT easier to get a job flying when the time came as well as good experience.
Flying costs also tend to rise with a loan scheme. Ask flying students in NZ what the chargeout rate on the 172 they are learning on. Half them have no idea!! They just know they have a $42000 loan. The flying schools see it as a cash cow so take advantage of it. An Ardmore flying school I talked to about 3 years ago were then charging $285 an hour for a 172 dual!! Meanwhile my local Aeroclub was charging $165 an hour in the Archer dual, but because they werent on the student loan scheme, were struggling to get CPL students.
So while it makes it easier to get a licence, the loan scheme just pushes up prices, introduces useless oxygen theives to aviation, and kills the aeroclubs. At the end of the day tho, what is the best solution for such a pricey occupation?