This is exactly where another thread around here was going with the "what does this have to do with me?" question.
Any major change on a national level is going to have a ripple effect. The only question is how far that ripple has to go before it reaches you.
We were talking here the other night about the concept of a university's endowment. The larger the endowment, in theory, the more scholarships that university can afford to pass on to students. But, the assumption there is that the endowment is producing income. When that income dries up or heads negative, it can affect the ability of thousands of students to be able to afford college or not.
Student loans are an even bigger part of college financing. Did they mention what sort of loans these were that would not be renewed? I'd imagine they'd be straight-from-the-bank loans and not the federally-backed sort.