While health care was in the forefront of people’s minds last week, an overhaul of the federal student loan program, which is expected to make student loan debt more manageable for students after graduation, passed, and President Barack Obama signed the bill into law Tuesday.

The law could mean big changes for students who struggle with debt because of student loans. The law means that colleges will now use the government as the primary issuer of student loans.

“To make sure our students don’t go broke just because they chose to go to college, we’re making it easier for graduates to afford their student loan payments,” Obama said in his weekly address Saturday. “The average student ends up with more than $23,000 in debt. So when this change takes effect in 2014, we’ll cap a graduate’s annual student loan repayments at 10 percent of his or her income.”

Other aspects of the education bill include bigger grants for college students in need, a plan to significantly reduce payments for current loans and more money for community colleges.

The bill does not help those who have current student loans, but it will affect the next generation.

Critics of the bill argue that since the bill eliminates the middleman, it reduces the options students have and is another form of a government takeover.

Included in the bill is a provision that if graduates go into the public sector, their loans will be erased after 10 years. Other loan recipients will have their loans forgiven after 20 years as long as they consistently meet their loan deadlines.

Helen Allen, associate director of counseling and information services in financial aid, said that while about 43 percent of the student population at the University receives federal financial aid, UA students will see no changes.

“The University is a direct lending institution already using the government as a lender, so therefore this bill will not affect the federal loan program,” she said.

She said since the bill will affect the colleges that use banks as their primary lenders.

“The colleges would have to switch to using the direct approach of using the government instead of the banks,” she said.

Allen said the University has been doing direct lending for years and it has been successful.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.