The directors of financial aid at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California held shares in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to student borrowers, and in at least two cases profited handsomely.

The personal stake of the three university officials in the company, now known as Student Loan Xpress, is the latest revelation in an expanding investigation by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York into the relationships between student loan companies and universities. Student Loan Xpress is one of the “preferred lenders” recommended at all three universities...

The revelations that financial aid administrators had investments in a student loan company come as state and federal lawmakers have stepped up their scrutiny of incentives that loan companies offer to curry favor with universities as tuitions — and student debt — rise. Last year, according to the College Board, students took out $85 billion in loans. Students rarely comparison shop and often rely on the preferred lenders list recommended by universities to take out a loan. Sometimes, only a handful of companies make the list.

“There’s an implicit assumption that the financial aid office is an impartial, informed intermediary,” said Michael Dannenberg, director of education policy at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington. “What we’re finding out now is that some colleges and some financial aid administrators may not be so impartial...”

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