Student Loan 2015 Discussion

gadgetmind

citizen119 wrote: »

People must make their own minds up, but there should be more emphasis on the effect of compound interest.

The effect of compound interest is to turn the loan into a de facto 9% tax on earnings above £21k for the 30 years after graduation. It's been designed such that people won't be able to pay it off unless they make large additional contributions early enough.

musicmonkey1

Martin's email about student Finance today says that 'you don't need any cash for Uni.'

Try telling that to my daughter who was left with just £300 out of her loan to live on for 4 months after paying for her accommodation. My wife (who is also a student) got more in loans living at home that my daughter who was living away!

It seems that whilst my wife's small income was discounted for her own loan, it was considered when assessing my daughters! I'm trying to support my wife in Uni, my daughter in Uni and my son in college on a modest occupational pension and if it wasn't for the fact that I have some savings, my daughter just wouldn't have been able to go because her loan was just inadequate.

It seems to me that each student loan application is considered in isolation without regard to any others within the same family and therefore wrong assumptions are made about income available to support the second or third student. (and yes my daughter knows she is expected to work too - but there are limits)

Less than £100 per month for living expenses, course materials books clothes and especially travel (if you live far away) after payment of rent goes nowhere even if you are working as well whilst at Uni, so please don't tell me that you don't need cash for Uni - you very clearly do and lots of it.

tog22

musicmonkey1 wrote: »

Martin's email about student Finance today says that 'you don't need any cash for Uni.'

Try telling that to my daughter who was left with just £300 out of her loan to live on for 4 months after paying for her accommodation.

Point absolutely taken, but I presume he was referring solely to the fees, since that's what the myths have surrounded (cf. today's protests).

melancholly

i think the costs of a lot of halls of residence are scandalous...... in some cities you can find cheaper shared houses if you search around, but they can be grotty and in the first year, you can miss out on a lot if you out of halls. most seem to require substantial deposits before loans are paid, which seems just bizarre to me and puts a lot of pressure on students/their families. most students end up using their interest free overdraft, plus holiday or term time work to subsidise loans/parental income......

as a general point, students shouldn't need lots of money upfront in principle, but in practice, with loans coming after term starts and expensive accommodation plus start up costs, some upfront money is needed. i do, however, think it's important to get the message through that loans are there for fees. this may seem obvious to those who have been through the system, but there are clearly a lot of people who only read headlines and have no family history of university applications.

setmefree2

A bit of fun

Universities with the richest students (or parents)

Of the UK's top 20 universities, Prince William's alma mater St Andrews hosts the highest proportion of financially independent students. Among last year's 1,625 first year entrants, 58 per cent lived and studied without the need for a student loan.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8882007/Universities-with-the-richest-students-or-parents.html

19 slides

setmefree2

And quite unbelievable this far into the term and the university application process

Plans for universities in England to compete for some student places should be delayed, a Commons committee says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15665368

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jHhfXRw4_uE2FHTPnEHSzVp-vZMQ?docId=N0556761320850374278A

kayr_2

setmefree2 wrote: »

A bit of fun



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8882007/Universities-with-the-richest-students-or-parents.html

19 slides

Interesting. However I wonder if some places have a high % of "self-financed" students because they live at home? (eg London/Glasgow?) I don't know. Also are foreign students included? (think the figures are for total no of undergraduates incl overseas which will be high at LSE/Oxbridge) Probably a bit meaningless, but pretty pics!

melancholly

kayr wrote: »

Interesting. However I wonder if some places have a high % of "self-financed" students because they live at home? (eg London/Glasgow?) I don't know. Also are foreign students included? (think the figures are for total no of undergraduates incl overseas which will be high at LSE/Oxbridge) Probably a bit meaningless, but pretty pics!

interestingly they are very vague on that - they specifically exclude EU students but say nothing about international students from further afield. the first website i found said 69% of LSE students come from outside the UK so it does matter a lot for some of the unis in that article. plus the article is only about maintenance loans, not tuition fee loans.

although credit where credit is due, they do manage to pretty much repeat the same line on every page, only changing the uni and the percentage, and use a different phrase every time. impressive!

The_One_Who

kayr wrote: »

Interesting. However I wonder if some places have a high % of "self-financed" students because they live at home? (eg London/Glasgow?) I don't know. Also are foreign students included? (think the figures are for total no of undergraduates incl overseas which will be high at LSE/Oxbridge) Probably a bit meaningless, but pretty pics!

It could be to do with living at home, at least in the case of Glasgow. I took out the loan, but I know of others who never bothered, they got the grants (and had a job) and could live off that. With just under 50% of Glasgow undergraduates coming from with a thirty mile boundary, and a lot of students commuting in from slightly further afield, it's a lot of people.

am81

Is capital ( for those graduates who have some) takeninto consideration when calculating loan repayment.
Could a person with little income but a lot of capital escape repaying?