Changes could double typical graduate’s debt to £30,000 (From Warrington Guardian)

Changes could double typical graduate’s debt to £30,000

3:30pm Thursday 21st October 2010 in News By Matthew Hobbs

THE Browne review was backed ahead of yesterday’s long awaited Government spending review and recommends big reforms to university funding.

With large cuts in Government funding, universities will be expected to make up the deficit by increasing student numbers and tuition fees.

Effectively, a fee market will be created with no cap on what universities can charge for teaching.

These are the main points of the review: l There should be no limit on fees charged by universities but students will not have to pay fees upfront instead.

Repaying the debt would begin when their earnings reach £21,000.

l Interest would then be incurred at the same rate of the cost of borrowing to the Government. This is currently 2.2 per cent.

l Universities which charge above £6,000 will have some cash taken back by the Government to cover costs of providing students with finance. l Around £700 million per year of public money will still be used to support courses such as medicine and nursing.

l All students will be eligible for a loan of £3,750. The system now uses a means test to decide how much a student will receive.

l Unpaid student debt would be written off after 30 years, instead of 25 years.

The projected level of debt a student will pay back is £30,000. The current average is around £17,000.