Total student loan when child finish university?

[luckybees]

What was you or your child student loan total when you finished uni? How long was the course? What year you finished? Did you borrow fees and maintenance? Have you/your child paid it already?

DH and I were lucky not to pay for university fees; not from the UK and lived at home so didn’t get in debt.

Am old so DH and l went to Uni before loans
We are funding our zDC so hopefully they will have no debt

We don’t pay enough tax. That’s the bottom line. And personally I’m not comfortable with the notion that low paid non graduates have to pay for those at uni from their taxes. It’s right that students pay back over their working life if they have had govt funding.

Given student finance is long established I’m still surprised that parents seem surprised about it at the point their kids are applying to Uni. It’s standard practice in the USA to start a savings pot for College from birth. Why not the same here?

Because bot everyone can afford it.

Savings of 50p a day from birth in a good account soon mount up - one of my relatives did this for my kids and they each had a few thousand pounds when they turned 18. Of course not everyone can do this but very many can and should put something aside for their children.

@OhDear111 you've missed the point (not sure if on purpose). Many many doctors won't get to be a consultant anymore as they can't get a training number and even if they do there are limited jobs. Many are unemployed or working in non clinical jobs, because there are none. Despite the 7 million on waiting lists to see a doctor.

GPs that are 'part time' are still working 40+ hours a week. And many are retiring and being replaced with an alphabet soup of other rules with much less qualifications.

You don't seem to like doctors very much. Which is fine but don't expect to see one on the NHS in 10 years if this continues.

Oh and lawyers don't have only one employer. Doctors do (can't do private work until consultant).

It does not cost £250,000 to train a doctor. But that's what most will pay back on loans.

Nurses are treated even worse since the bursary was scrapped.

DS did a paid for degree 2012/2015 he still owes about 46k - he’s earning about 70k a year and it never seems to reduce. He only qualified for minimum maintenance loan too.

DD did an NHS degree 2015-2018, received less than the minimum maintenance loan as you also qualified for a means tested bursary. However both these were less together than the minimum maintenance loan, no tuition fees though. She has just paid her final £1200 off in a lump sum. She’s a Band 7 in the NHS at the bottom of the pay banding.

I graduated in 2018 and had about £29k in debt, I have around £9k left to pay which comes straight out of my salary. I think I pay around £450 a month now but my salary has increased through having the degree I’ve gone from something like £10k a year local admin job to £100k a year senior management. The investment has been extremely worthwhile. I feel so sorry for nurses and teachers who probably had the same if not more debt who’s earning potential will see them paying their debt back for a long long time.

@BeMellowAquaSquid Sorry all for the derail - but what an amazing jump in salary in such a short amount of time! Would you be willing to say what degree you did and exactly what type of job in senior management you now have? (I have three dc of varying ages, but not yet out of education, so it would be very helpful info - thanks!)

Sure I was a legal secretary for 14 years, gave up work to be a SAHM for 3 years. Went through a horrific break up so got a low level admin job. As my kids got older knew I wanted and needed more so I went and got my degree part time whilst working my way up in law firms in the City I then graduated in Business Management and took a couple of low level management roles. On the side I joined a speaking group as I had zero confidence with presentations and public speaking then took a gamble threw my hat in the ring recently and am now a senior manager in a law firm leading 150 people. It’s been a hard slog and I know I’ve derailed the thread as I wasn’t a child when I graduated but part of me wants to reiterate to all those kids at Uni that no matter what stage you’re at in life if you have a can do attitude your world really is your oyster and the only thing holding you back is yourself. I was 38 when I graduated.

@BeMellowAquaSquid Thank you! And many congrats on the recent role - what an inspiration!

They haven’t replicated their original, but put ‘Graduate outcomes’ into the search bar on the IFS website brings up a few more recent reports using LEO data.

@mumsneedwine I expect to pay! Don’t get much now so certainly aren’t expecting much in the future. Of course we know international doctors are getting the jobs and as the extension of training places was too much and employment was not there, the involved parties only heve themselves to blame but we have a culture of doctors always thinking they are special and deserve more than other grads. There’s still huge demand for the courses so if outcomes are so dire - why is this the case? Overall it will sort itself out. But in general terms the NHS is an unfinished basket case.

It’s not that I don’t like and respect doctors. What I don’t like is entitled and whinging doctors when they have historically got the best remuneration of ANY degree!

This is true. I was lucky to go to uni when I did. I also didn't end up staying in teaching and went into something that was higher paid which was another reason why my loan was paid off relatively quickly.

@OhDear111 then talk about another profession. All I did was mention doctors as an example and immediately it's 'pesky doctors think they're better'. Always a strange reaction.

5 year degrees are expensive. Doctor, 3rd year post qualification.

because higher education is state supported by the state in many countries in the rest of the world, just look at the cost of higher education just on the European continent ?

@VanCleefArpels because what they signed up for is not the same as they are now paying for. They changed things after loan was signed, should he illegal but weirdly isn't.

Is there any possibility of your DC going back to your home country ro study and stay with relatives?

My point was about parental preparedness not the terms of the loans themselves. I agree the terms should not be able to be changed during the course of the agreement. But the fact remains that every year at this time you see many threads from parents who apparently only just realise there is some expectation of financial support for their student kids. This is not a new system!

What happens in other countries is irrelevant - we have had a system of student contribution for many years now. Some of the first cohort of students who had to take loans will now be parents themselves. How long will it take to create a culture of saving by parents as is entirely the norm in the US?

@VanCleefArpels my kids were in teens when the fees were raised to £9000, so was a surprise to us ! We had not budgeted a massive increase. And had 2 kids who both did 5 year degrees and over lapped for 3 years. Again hadn't foreseen that either. We knew we'd be supporting them, just not factored in rent increases of 75% and a cost of living increase that meant heating became a luxury. My crystal ball was on the blink.

Historically may be the right word. Now many other jobs out earn doctors

https://www.legalcheek.com/2021/10/lawyers-outearn-doctors-and-dentists-with-93k-average-salary/#:~:text=Lawyers%20earned%20more%20this%20year,have%20changed%20since%20last%20year.