Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Students to pay off loans into their 60s, plans say
The government announces a shake-up of student finance in England to reduce the bill for taxpayers.
www.bbc.co.uk
Currently unpaid loans get written off after 30 years, for next years' cohort that will be 40 years, so well in to their sixties, a working lifetime of debt.
The government is proposing these changes because more students than ever are going to university - but only 25% of those who started full-time undergraduate degrees in 2020 are expected to pay back their loans in full.
If this is correct it seems that a hell of a lot of people are going to university and taking away no material benefit from the experience at all. Surely most people go there on the promise of graduates earning more than non-graduates over the course of a lifetime? But only a quarter can manage to pay off the average debt of £45k over 30 years suggests that they aren't exactly coining it, no?