How much student loan did you owe when you graduated?

7k in 2001. Paid off in 2017.

Do we really all benefit from a ‘well educated’ population? I’ve heard this line trotted out before, and sure, we all benefit from doctors, dentists etc, but the vast majority of people don’t need a degree. Personally, I think we would benefit from far fewer people going to university, and more people learning on the job. It’s not right that people who don’t go to university should have to pay for the people who do useless degrees and never pay the money back.

Plan 1, owed £21k upon graduation in 2014; tuition fees and maintenance. No parental support so also worked 30 hours pw in a “part time” job!

Paid off very little for the first 3ish years, then got into high paying career. Began making “proper” repayments in 2017 and as it was tagged to inflation, the remaining amount that had barely cost me any interest to start with suddenly started accruing it with the cost of living/inflation crisis. Paid the remaining £5k off with a lump sum in 2024 when I realised I couldn’t get a savings account that would earn as much as it was costing me!

I know that now! But I think that, as a risk-averse 18 year old from a relatively deprived area with parents earning in total nowhere near what I am now lucky enough to take home… It would have felt like way too much of a gamble to take on all that debt in pursuit of a career that felt completely alien.

2011 about £13k?

@idontknowwhatitis Why? Get a decent job and you are still better off! As indeed you are when compared to many others.

About 6.5k in 2009. I’m pretty sure I owe more now than when I graduated. After I graduated I had low paid jobs for awhile, then moved into a career and started paying it back, then had babies and went part time. I started repaying it again about 4 years ago but the interest rate has shot up. I think of it as a graduate tax rather than a loan, which helps 😆

Graduated 2010 with £9.5k. Stayed at home so it was less but friends who moved out racked up £20k+.

Started 2006, it was the first year they hiked it up to £3k a year, but it also increased by about £100 each year. One person on my course who repeated the first year was paying the old fees, £1.25k I think? Same as another who deferred a year. But we all did a sandwich course so a work placement in year 3 then back for year 4. Previously students had to pay half fees for that year out, which at least we didn’t have to.

Paid it off in 2014. Didn’t earn enough to automatically do so but lived at home so could save. Had a friend who called me foolish to do so, kept saying it would get written off after so many years so what was the point? I hated that, didn’t like Uni that much and it was achievable so I wanted rid and to draw a line.

Almost £50k in 2011, despite working throughout (medical degree). I was from a low income background and I would not have gone to university if the fees had been >£3k per year, for fear of the debt. It’s a scandal that good students will now be lost due to this.

About £25000 the last time I looked (I've done three degrees, had tuition and loan for the first, was paid to do the second, and had maintenance loans for the third as the NHS paid my tuition fees). I couldn't tell you how much I owe as I purposely pay not attention to it. It was stressing me out seeing the interest go up before I started paying it back (I have spent years being part time due to being a mum and I spent a year travelling). They take a small amount each month before tax so I don't notice it. I won't pay them off and have no intention of putting in extra money to do so.

£9k in 2006. Paid off by 2012. Then back up to £9k with a post-grad qualification in 2019. Still trying to pay it off. Only just scratched the surface.

Nothing. Also part of the grant era.

I mean I started in 1997 not 1996

£38k graduating in 2012! 4 years masters degree in London. I have £17k left 🫠 still glad I am plan 1 though instead of 2.

£3k in 1996. Maintenance loans only. Borrowed it and stuck in in a high interest account. Never paid it off because I had kids young and haven't worked full time since. It wiped itself about 2021.

£9.9k in 2001. I started in 1998 which was the first year of fees. We had to hand over £1k cash (literally) on the first day or we couldn’t enrol.

Pretty sure our terms were 9% over £17k, but that switched to £23k at some point.

MIL paid mine off in 2010, with about £2k remaining.

I will still encourage both mine to uni.

I graduated in 2000 with no debts as I started in 1996 which was the year before they introduced fees. I’ve also completed a masters and MBA payed for by my employers. My son has then done a degree, masters and PhD. I paid off his masters fees, his PhD was funded and he is slowly paying off loans for his undergraduate degree which were about 40k I think…

10k - graduated in 2006 then did masters. Paid it off this year. It kept going down then I’d be off on mat leave or part time and the interest made it go up again. I feel so sorry for young people now

£9k in 2002, never earned enough to pay it off for the first 10 years (low wage area) then went PT after kids, now FT and pay back about £90 a month, debt is around £16k. Think it gets cancelled when I'm 65. Looking to start paying more into my pension rather than paying it off now.

Nothing undergrad in the 90s paid for by parents who prioritised saving for education nothing Postgrad diploma 2000s paid for by work. Nothing Masters 2010s paid for by work.

Will pay for our kids fees and accommodation costs about 15k per year per child. Under grad only. Saved for nearly two decades now planning for it for same as my parents had for me. We reckon it is about 150k + all in.

It's absolutely scandalous. Dd is in her 3rd year at uni and I am so worried that she'll have this colossal debt for the rest of her working life. The huge amount of interest charged should not be allowed. I do think it's unfair that wanting to further your education should come at such a huge financial cost.

£13k in 2008 (£21k today). I was lucky enough to have fees paid by my LA (last year of £1k) and get max loans and grant because of low income household.

Paid it off a good few years ago now and felt like a weight lifted! I really feel for today’s students as it’s become basically a lifetime tax.

6k in 1997. It got written off when I turned 50. When I was working, I never earned enough to start repayments. The terms were extremely generous and didn’t include anything you earned overseas. I cannot imagine leaving with the debt that graduates have these days, I hope the standards of education have improved greatly since I was there. In my first year I had 8 hours a week of lectures, classes and seminars. Obviously I was delighted at the time but looking back, all that for 8 whole hours? Jesus.

I graduated from my BA in 2009, with about £18k in debt I think: first year of top-up fees to £3k. I was one of the last cohort in which you could get a government grant for an MA, which paid my fees and some living costs. My PhD was also funded by a scholarship that probably doesn't exist anymore.

I didn't pay back anything until 2014 when I got my first full time job in a university that paid over the repayment threshold. I think I owed closer to £22k then. I finished paying it off last year. So it took me ten years - at least five of those at a well above average salary.

I now teach in a university. It's increasingly hard to see the fees as in any way justifiable for many students. The loan system is incredibly regressive (I paid may more overall than my higher earning DH). But I don't like the idea of a graduate tax either because we all benefit from having a well educated population. It's hard to know where we go from here.