Schools don't need to be burdened with credit management, nor do they have the capability. When you take out a loan for a business, you don't take out loans directly from each of your suppliers and employees, you go to a bank who should know a thing or two about credit risk.
You should just owe money to banks -- and banks should be allowed to fail.
Right now, the only people on the hook are the taxpayers who bail the banks out.
Considering how they manage various scholarships too, would loans be that much to add? They already deal with money in multitude of ways including things like grants. So there shouldn't be that much difference.
Let schools act as creditors or not, depending on their business model. What's important is that government shouldn't be acting as a misaligned lending institution.
You should just owe money to banks -- and banks should be allowed to fail.
Right now, the only people on the hook are the taxpayers who bail the banks out.