Sawt Falasteen - 'Punished' for university: debt-laden UK graduates urge reform

The UK parliament's treasury committee on Thursday launched an inquiry into the student loan system, acknowledging the "intense dissatisfaction" among graduates.

Tindale -- the first in her family to pursue higher education -- studied English Literature at Newcastle University in the northeast.

She said she had no other choice but to get a loan to pay for university, despite taking on several odd-jobs during her four years as a student.

"We've been told by the government our entire lives, go to university, invest in your future," said Tindale, who joined dozens of graduates meeting MPs on Wednesday to advocate for a better deal for the more than 1.5 million students who seek loans each year to finance their studies.

"It feels like I've done all of the right things, and then I'm being punished ... by paying a ridiculous amount of student loan and then the interest rate on top of it."

With high interest rates, the system has "clearly led to widespread dissatisfaction among graduates", said treasury committee chair Meg Hillier.

Hillier noted there was a risk it was "placing the burden unfairly on younger people" -- in what some critics have termed a "graduate tax", arguing it unfairly burdens university graduates.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, young graduates are on average £53,000 in debt. They must start repaying 9% of their earnings monthly if their income exceeds £28,470.

- How to 'plan ahead?' -

When he took out his loan, Elliot Briffa, 23 -- who graduated with a degree in Political Science from Manchester in 2024 -- said he didn't realise the long-term consequences.

"The main things that you're worried about whilst you're a student is, can you afford rent? Can you afford food?"

But today, £67,000 in debt, he is also worried about his future.

"How am I supposed to plan ahead? How can I actually start building up a savings?" he said, adding it was "impossible" to imagine taking a mortgage in this situation.

Briffa's salary as a union employee falls below the repayment threshold.

But he added: "I'm worried that I'm going to have to start paying back before I can afford to". He already lives "frugally", he added.

The Labour government last year froze the threshold, as a result increasing the number of graduates required to repay their loans.

There is unanimous opposition to the current situation, with all political parties proposing some reforms.

The trouble began after 2012, when the Conservative government tripled tuition fees to £9,000 per year. They now stand at just over £9,500.

Students can take out loans to cover this fee, as well as a maintainance loan of up to £10,500 a year to finance their living expenses.

- Reforms -

For Alex Stanley, vice-president of the NUS student union, the threshold needs to be unfrozen, the interest rate on loans (set to 6.2% for most students who entered university before July 2023) needs to be reduced, as does the repayment rate.

The repayment rate "really impacts graduates day to day", said Stanley, pointing to the high cost-of-living pressures.

"If the government doesn't act, they're going to let down a whole generation of young people. And that only isn't the wrong thing to do, but it's not sensible electorally as well," he added.

The government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last autumn introduced a £1,000 maintainance grant starting 2028 for students from low-income households.

However, these will only be available for students doing "priority" courses that support the government's "industrial strategy".

Starmer promised last month to "look at ways" to make the system "fairer."

While it does not yet compare to the situation in the United States -- where student debt can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars -- Stanley warned the UK should see the "American model as the greatest warning".

Without reform, the student loan system risks fewer young people accessing university, said Briffa, especially working-class students who "just no longer see university as a feasible route for them".

R.Halabi--SF-PST