Kansas University senior Nathan Navrat knows someday he’ll feel the pinch of rising student loan interest rates.

“It’s going to hurt me because I’m going into journalism, so I’m not going to be making much money,” he said.

Rising tuition. Rising fees. Now students will be feeling the pinch in increased student loan interest rates.

As of July 1, interest rates increased on Parent PLUS loans and Stafford loans, the most common loans for college students.

Stafford loans had variable rates until July 1. After July 1, new Stafford loans will be fixed at 6.8 percent, which is still below the prime rate, which was 8.25 on Friday.

The new rates mean Kansas students will have to pay at least $2,000 more for loans, according to a study released by the Campaign for America’s Future, a political action group.

Kansas University senior Bassem Chahine, of Tripoli, Lebanon, right, seeks help from financial aid adviser Jonelle Forshee, a KU junior from Concordia, at the Office of Student Financial Aid. As of July 1, rates for the most popular types of student loans have increased.

Existing Stafford loans will remain variable but with a 6.54 percent rate through the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2007, and a cap of 8.25 percent for the life of the loan.

The new fixed-rate loans guarantee that students won’t see a return to the good old days of recent years, when some saw variable interest rates drop below 3 percent.

The rate for PLUS loans for the families of KU students will be 7.9 percent. The rate is lower than the 8.5 percent rate other students are seeing because KU participates in a direct loan program.

About 11,000 KU students have loans.

The higher rates can be shocking to students who’ve enjoyed low rates in recent years. The Stafford loan interest rate was 3.46 percent in 2002-03, dropping to 2.82 percent the following year and 2.77 percent in 2004-05.

“It’s tough,” KU junior Ryan Greenhaw said. “A lot of people can’t afford to go to school. For a lot of people, that’s the only way they can get here.”

But the low rates of recent years were unusually, and in some cases historically, low, said Stephanie Covington, associate director of KU’s Office of Student Financial Aid.

Covington said the fixed rates can be positive for students in that they offer predictability.

The amount of student loan debt for KU students has been on the rise for more than a decade.

In 1993-94, KU students had a combined $29.5 million in subsidized Stafford loans. A decade later, that figure had risen to about $36.5 million.

Covington said it’s too early to know whether the increased interest rates will deter students from taking loans, but she said that’s not a likely scenario.

“The trend has been an increase in borrowing every year,” she said.