Student Loan 2015 Discussion

The_Baroness

[FONT=&quot]The misinformation continues...I’ve just received a press release on behalf of Standard Life in which Julie Hutchison, head of technical insight at Standard Life is quoted as saying:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“Attending university is of course a worthwhile pursuit but can be expensive with the costs of tuition fees, living costs and course material all adding up over the years. Even though a student loan can be taken to cover all these outgoings, parents can also seriously help reduce these costs. Making the decision to save money for their children will help lower their eventual monthly student loan repayments or the length of time it takes them to pay it back.

How are parents supposed to understand the system when they are being told such things by supposed 'financial' experts?



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The_Baroness

Oh, just in case anyone is interested in seeing the whole press release here is the link to it on Standard Life's website:

http://ukgroup.standardlife.com/content/news/new_articles/2011/sl_research_university_debt_headache_for_parents.xml

melancholly

The_Baroness wrote: »

Oh, just in case anyone is interested in seeing the whole press release here is the link to it on Standard Life's website:

http://ukgroup.standardlife.com/content/news/new_articles/2011/sl_research_university_debt_headache_for_parents.xml

they're removed the sentence about monthly repayments from that website - the bit you quoted isn't there in full on that link.

maybe they realised they had completely misunderstood how student loan repayments work!

The_Baroness

melancholly wrote: »

they're removed the sentence about monthly repayments from that website - the bit you quoted isn't there in full on that link.

maybe they realised they had completely misunderstood how student loan repayments work!

Maybe someone from Standard Life read my comment on here. It was definitely there when I posted the link earlier. Glad to see they are no longer misinforming their target audience. A bit worrying about the sort of advice that parents will be getting from the providers of financial products in the future if the likes of Standard Life appear not to understand how student loan repayment works!

BigBelly

How about mentioning that you can go to university in other EU countries and pay low or no fees for courses that are taught in English?

The_One_Who

BigBelly wrote: »

How about mentioning that you can go to university in other EU countries and pay low or no fees for courses that are taught in English?

That is fine, but you need to think about actually living in the country if you have no grasp of the language. When it comes to dealing with rental agreements or utility bills or employment you are going to need at least some of the language, and not everyone can grasp it.

You also have to think about how you are going to fund your living costs.

BigBelly

The_One_Who wrote: »

That is fine, but you need to think about actually living in the country if you have no grasp of the language. When it comes to dealing with rental agreements or utility bills or employment you are going to need at least some of the language, and not everyone can grasp it.

You also have to think about how you are going to fund your living costs.

A lot of universities are very geared up to accepting British students, such as Maastricht, and quite a few British students are already there. So I presume sorting out rental agreements etc. isn't that big a deal. You are saving £15,000+ after all so it must be worth a bit of effort!

Maastricht has many students from Germany and elsewhere where they wouldn't speak Dutch so it isn't expected to know Dutch and virtually all Dutch people speak English anyway.

Living costs are similar to the UK. You don't need to know Dutch to get a menial student type job, or even a proper job. Lots of people work for years in NL without learning the language, although I would recommend learning it anyway for a much richer experience.

melancholly

there was a thread from someone recently about applying for uni in the Netherlands - perhaps not as easy as they make out, but certainly an option. it certainly isn't geared up sufficiently for it to be an 'easy' option instead of UCAS yet but i bet by next year it well be (entry is made later for Dutch unis compared to the UK - the same year as entry).

rollomcfluff

This is a very good explanation of the Student Loans system. Your point 18 about it being an additional marginal 9% graduate tax is so important. It should be point 1.

rollomcfluff

As this is a quasi additional marginal rate tax for graduates, how will students that go overseas to ply their trade have their student loans paid off? I imagine that a marginal rate of 51% (after just £42kpa salary) might be a strong incentive to leave the country - (61% after £150kpa even more so). Is a braindrain likely to be the next unintended consequence of this policy?