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Debts owed by graduates have risen by as much as a third by Tom Short |
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Students are leaving university with a record amount of debt – a third more than last year. The Student Loans Company revealed that the amount of money it lent to students between 2007 and 2008 was £3.9 billion, amounting to a 32% increase over the 2006/2007 year. But while inflation officially rose to 3.3 per cent in May, average graduate salaries have risen by only 3% in the last year, according to a survey by Employer’s Review. Many students are finding themselves in an unmanageable amount of debt, a figure that starts rising as soon as they leave university. Luke Johnson studied Maths at Plymouth University , and went on to do an MA in Advanced Mathmatics. “I think I owe about £25,000 in total after four years. Quite a lot!”, he said. “And I didn’t realise that when you leave uni, you start paying interest on your loan – it’s not much but 50 or so quid a month starts to add up if you don’t pay it right away,”. Shadow higher education secretary Rob Wilson said a review of university funding was ‘urgent’, as students were under ‘heavy financial pressure’. Higher education minister Bill Rammel said that this year, up to two thirds of new students will be eligible for at least a partial maintenance grant of up to £2,835 a year.
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