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?

Me - zero in the 1980s
My children - £52,000 each in the 2020s.

I was lucky my employer paid as I did a degree part time but I feel for today’s young people too - small to be starting life off with this much debt.

I’m trying to save as much money as I can for my kids but I’ll be unable to pay it all - maybe 40%-50% but then as they are only actually in uni for so few hours I’d hope they’d choose to go locally, work part time, so that they can hopefully fund some of it themselves.

The local student accommodation near us is half empty as so many students now chose to live at home. The Europeans do this and I think it’s the way forward really. Why pay hundreds of pounds out for an accommodation when you don’t need too? If the tuition fees weren’t as much perhaps but while they are so high, it will put people off going and those going are more likely to choose a local university, unless the parents are minted and can fund it all!

The other night there was a programme on talking to students about their debt and some graduates and then there is the interest added to it so the longer it takes people to pay off, the more they pay and if they get a second job to try to keep afloat - this gets taken into account too as to how much they pay!!
it’s awful and it needs an urgent review - no wonder so many universities are in financial difficulty!!

I didn't go to uni but my DC both have plan two loans. One started off around £50k and the other £45k. I hardly dare ask what they owe now.
Both are in middle earning jobs so are in the group who will almost but not quite pay it off in 30 years. Huge monthly repayments.
Hopefully when I die they will inherit enough to pay it off.
There's a calculator in this article to work out whether it's worth trying to overpay.

None. I graduated in 1983.
My DD will owe about £80K (4-year degree in London) when she finishes next year. I like to paint it as an investment but really I think it's wrong to saddle young people with this much debt in today's economy.

Zero debt. I studied part time in the 90’s whilst working full time in an unrelated job and paid my tuition fees myself. Luckily, the fees weren’t too high.

Still, I couldn’t afford to continue onto the LPC as the risk of not getting a training contract was too great and so I never really did much with my Law degree. ☹️

About £12,000 when I graduated in 2007. That was just the maintenance loan though, the local LEA paid the majority of tuition fees with a small parental contribution on top. I don't earn enough to pay it off and I doubt I ever will so as a group 1 loan it will be written off when I'm 65!

£12k in 2007, about £1k left to pay now as I haven't earned enough to pay automatically for about 6 years (part time since 1st DC).
It was tough paying even the minimum repayments throughout my 20s when I was struggling to pay rent/bills but compared to today's fees I got off lightly, agree it isn't right to saddle young people with these huge amounts.

£250
Tuition was free and they were swapping grants for loans just before I left
DD will have around £60k aand its putting DS off from going to uni at all

About 20 grand in 2010. Been paying it off for over 10 years and it’s still about 20 grand.

My career doesn’t pay well and I’ll likely never pay it off and yet it requires a degree…

Its even worse now - I think it’s absolutely appalling it costs so much and that the interest rates are so high.

Nothing. No student loan my day.

About £4.5k graduated 2000. It was sold off to a debt collection agency and now about £6k

£10k in 2005, paid it off in full by July 2015. Had actually overpaid so spent 18 months(!) trying to get back the £3k they owed me, eventually got it back which was a bonus (no interest though, they kept that despite depriving me of the opportunity to earn interest during that time!)
Students Loans have always been an absolute shitshow, we will advise DC to really think through all post 18 options when the time comes as I don’t think degrees are the right path for everyone or every career

Did you live at home ? Because that amount wouldn’t cover fees and accommodation and books & living costs etc not to mention a socialising budget

So you never paid it off ?

@Theda13 My DD has. Graduated 2014 after four year degree.Then did 2 years of full time law courses - paid it off in 2023. It was the lower tuition fee though (2010).

I graduated in 96 with maybe 15k, I'm not sure. Never paid any back and it all got wiped when I turned 50.

I think mine was about £27k in 2009 and then another £25k professional loan for the masters - paid it off in 2023 I think it was and felt as happy as if I had finished paying my mortgage! Or I imagine that’s what it feels like I don’t think I will ever pay this mortgage off

Graduated from Masters in 2005 with about £12K debt. Paid it off over 10 years - could have done it sooner but it would have been foolish to overpay such cheap debt when I had a mortgage etc. I later did another Masters to support a career change but self-funded that out of a small inheritance. Ever grateful to my late grandparents for that.

Just under £40k in 2010. Included a year of postgraduate training in London with high fees. I have paid it off and I use my degree every day but it is depressing that that is a hefty house deposit that I have paid.

Not yet . I was always eligible for deferment of repayment due to low income …
but then I moved house and didn’t defer in time … so student loans company sold the debt to an agency . It’s now with them .
ironically it would’ve been cleared when I reach 50 if student loans had kept the debt .
I turn 50 this year 🤦‍♀️😂

It was around 25k in 2014. Due to pay it off in about a year.

£7-8k I think (early 2000s). Paid it off after about 5 years I think.

The levels of debt current students build up terrifies me! The interest rates are ridiculous.

At uni for 4 years in mid 1990’s and left with about 5k debt - didn’t pay off for first 3 years as didn’t earn enough but when moved to London I had to start paying it off - it was about £95 per month and at that time I was earning around 27k per annum. Very low interest rate - it was paid off in 5 years.
I had no tuition fees either

its all changed so much!!