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?

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.

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!

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.

7k in 2001. Paid off in 2017.

Graduated in 1988 with £2.43 left. No debt 😀

i took the advice of Martini Lewis , I had enough saved for 2 DC to cover tuition but at the time the advice was it was better for a mortgage deposit. They now owe 70k and 80k, plan 2, the 30k each would barely make a difference even if they wanted to pay it off now. It's bad when you read a salary of 66k only pays a couple of quid of the debt.

Zero. I came from a single parent family and got a full grant when I went to uni in the 80s. I honestly have no idea how people are meant to afford it now. Especially those from a poorer background. It’s all so wrong.

I graduated all the way back in 1994, with about £8k of maintenance loan. No tuition fees then, otherwise I don’t think I would have gone to Uni. We were the first cohort to have a student loan rather than a grant for maintenance. Took me most of my 20s to pay it off.
Im grateful for my degree and it was worth it, but I wouldn’t do it today at today’s prices.
I think it’s completely wrong that the deciding factor is increasingly ability to pay (or be comfortable with normalising huge levels of debt) rather than academic ability.

Claer Barrett had a piece about this in the FT last week, particularly about Plan 2. Scandalous. You can read it on Instagram too.

The idea IS, to get somebody else to pay it for you
>
https://sponsorseeker.co.uk/
Is a good start

None as scottish and did open uni.

I feel so bad that people have to pay now. Especially when its folk that likely got itnfor free back in the day making these decisions.

I graduated in 2019 and owed 75,000 🤣 I just laughed they are never getting that back are they! Foundation year, BSc and MSc + all the loans ai could get from student finance as I got pregnant in foundation year. Luckily they paid 80% of childcare costs back then so I could finish. They don't do that anymore. Still barely pay that much back a month. Should have chosen my degree programme better! -make sure it's accredited with the correct professional bodies people! I don't think people should go until they are older either. Our brains aren't even fully formed until mid 20's earliest - why are we making these huge life determining decisions before then is beyond insane

I'm very lucky to be Scottish, so had no student debt. I am forever grateful. I love in England now with young children and already worry about their education.

I graduated in ‘97, so it’s was only about 3k and it’s long paid off. Otoh, my DS is doing a stem masters with two years still to go (straight out of a levels, he got good marks) so he’ll be racking it up over five years which I do worry about. Thankfully he’s financially savvy and already has a small savings and investments portfolio, plus he wisely chose a uni in his home city to keep his living overheads to a minimum. He says maybe half of his peers have stayed living at home for the same reason.
There was actually something on BBC R4 late morning yesterday about people with plan 2 loans and it sounds like this could be brewing up into a bit of a future scandal.

About £27k in 2014. I'm on plan 2. It's now gone up to over £36k🙃

£2000 in 2013, mostly NHS funded thankfully. Paid it off in a year.

The best way is to get somebody else to pay for you
> as with everythin in life

About 11k in 2014, I got in the last year of plan 1. Only paid it off last year, didn’t start making a dent until 2019.

In European countries where it’s free, most people go to their local uni because everyone is guaranteed a place but not everyone is guaranteed to pass each year.

This makes the most sense to me. Make it free and accessible but hard so in the end a degree actually means something.

I agree and I think higher education overall needs a huge shakeup. A friend’s 20-year-old DS has just been accepted onto a nebulous degree at a poorly-rated university. He has two A Levels at grade D, the entry criteria is one A Level at grade D or above or equivalent. Honestly, I think it’s predatory of universities to even be offering these types of degrees and of the government to allow student finance for them. There’s no benefit to anyone at all for young people who simply aren’t academic to be doing these sorts of degrees, graduating with student debt, and having no chance of competing in the job market against clever graduates with solid degrees from good universities.

About £11k, graduated 2001. Didn't earn enough to pay any back for many years. I think with interest it got up to around £14 at one point. Paid it off around 2016.

Graduated from a Scottish uni with undergrad in 2000. So no tuition fees and only about £4,000 in personal loans. Long paid off. Did a couple of masters since but paid them upfront.

Don't think I'd go to uni now as a youngster if I lived in England or Wales unless for a degree which led to a specific career outcome (eg, medicine, law, teaching). Not for a chuffing humanities subject.

Even the OU in Scotland only costs about £1,500 py for undergrad modules if you have to pay (eg, second degree).

Think alot of parents are selfish nowadays, and don't prepare adequately to support their children through university, leaving them with huge sums to repay.

If you just saved £200 per month (just amount received from CB) and achieved 8% growth rate, you'd have £50k by time child 18.

That says a lot about your income and distorts reality for most people. “If you just saved £200 a month”. Just?

None. Graduated in 2003. No tuition fees and got a student maintenance grant as well as I was a single parent so didn't have to pay it back. I worked as well, so managed ok financially.

£12k graduating in 2004, paid it off in 2020.

I had a couple of friends who took out the loan, put it in an ISA, their parents then paid their tuition/maintenance in full, and then upon graduation they paid back the loan and got to keep the interest it had made for them too.