Loans -
Student loans borrowings at their highest - 18/06/2008
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Student loan borrowings have risen to an all-time high, new statistics released by the government show.
According to the Student Loans Company, around £4 billion was borrowed over the 2007/08 academic year, up from around one third in comparison to 2006/07. Included in this total was the £2.8 billion used by students to cover their day-to-day costs, which increased by 10.4 per cent over the previous term. An even greater rise was recorded for money borrowed to pay for tuition fees, which went up by 176.7 per cent across the year to hit £1.1 billion.
The government said that, currently, 2.7 million Britons have money outstanding on their student loans; the total amount owed now, stands at £22 billion. Maintenance grants, which provide financial assistance to students from lower income households, are also to be increasingly used. According to estimates, two thirds of students are eligible for some form of non-repayable loan this year, with around half of that total able to claim the full £2,800 grant.
Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said: “The changes we have made enable an extra 100,000 students each year to benefit from some level of grant support while they are at university. I want people to aim for university confident that they'll have the help they need to fund their studies.”
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