How much student loan did you owe when you graduated?

[Theda13]

I owed £21,119 when I graduated in 2020 (Plan 2 in Wales). I had the highest amount of grants (maintenance and tuition fees) due to coming from a low-income household.

What about you?

About the same, 2009. Paid it off in 2023.

£3500 in 1997. I feel awful for young people.

About £12000. I got in just before the top-up fees came in. My brother is a few years younger and left with £30,000 worth of debt.

Same and same :(

2012- £8000, paid off in 2020

I owed about 55k from my undergrad (sadly started it just after the fees were tripled), further 12k for masters and about 20k for PhD. Yay for me.

£5000 in 2000. Paid off 18yrs ago

Zero-university in the 1980s - no fees and a full grant.
dd is in year two of a five year course, minimum loan plus fees so over £70k I imagine.

Nothing - my undergrad degree was in the early 90s. I’ve gone on to do another BSc and master’s but they were paid for by my employer.

That’s amazing. I don’t know anyone irl who has paid off their student loans.

I graduated in 2012 with around 24k worth of debt. Didnt earn enough to pay it off for a few years working PT young kids etc, however now I "only" owe 5k due to much higher paying role now. Im plan 1. Plan 2 is shocking

Graduated in 2009 from undergrad masters. I think it was about £12K but I paid the final bit in 2020. I was the year before the top up fees. Even though it never felt unmanageable or scary, it was a relief to have it paid off, not least because it meant more money in my pay packet

Young people have truly been shafted with the more recent loans. I feel so sorry for them.

About 11k in 2003, paid off in 2015. I'm not entirely convinced university is worth the money nowadays unless you're going into a profession. No idea what to advise my son to do when he gets there.

Graduated in 1999 and 2021 respectively. No debt.

Dh also graduated in 1999. Also no debt.

Figures are horrific today.

Around 10k. Plan 1. Paid it off fairly quickly. Relieved that I went before they introduced the 9k fees. I’m not sure that I would have gone with those costs.

None. I went to uni abroad and fortunately my mum could afford the fees for each term. If paid like that, she got 25% off. I had a part time job and contributed what I could.

I think I’ve been quite lucky. I am also from a low income background and got scholarships. I graduated and got an entry level job (didn’t need my degree - thanks recession) in a big corporation and worked my way up to a 30k salary, whilst saving for a deposit. Bought my tiny flat in 2016, got made redundant, got a better job at 50k and worked up again, sold my flat for a family home with my partner in 2023.

I paid off the last 4k of my student loan with equity in 2023, which I know isn’t recommended, but it felt good.

I think this kind of route would be near impossible now.

Ive just calculated that based on my current rate of pay itll be gone in 20 months...cant wait

£28,000 in 2012. Included some funding for my Masters though. Cleared in 2021 I think. So it has very much been a worthwhile investment for me.

13000 of student loan and 2000 of overdraft. Plan 1 loans. We paid tuition fees upfront each year, total of 4000. Paid back loans over 10 years.

I’ve accepted defeat in terms of repayments. I’ll never earn enough to pay mine off.

I had a pretty good deal when compared to my English peers, who are also Plan 2. A lot of them owed £50k+.

Graduated with £23k on Plan 1, just before the fees jumped up. I'm due to pay it off in about 3 years time!

£14k, graduated 2006. Paid it off about 6 years ago.

£10k for a four year degree (Scotland). Low income household. Graduated 2008.

A quick Google tells me if I was starting a degree this year I'd get a max loan of £9400 per year, so my total debt would be £38k. But salaries have increased too. A teacher today earns £41k post probation. The same teacher in 2004 (when I started my degree) earned around £22k apparently.

So with that very unscientific analysis, debt would be 3.8x higher and salary would be 2x higher. So still bad, but not as bad as it looks just based on debt.

9 grand in 2002. I paid it off around 10 or 12 years ago.

I won’t be encouraging DS to go to uni unless he ends up set on a defined career path which needs it.
Luckily he is only 3 so it will be a while before he’s thinking about it!