I hope this is worth it!
Foreign nationals are borrowing £4bn a year in student loans amid rising anger at the cost of university education, The Telegraph can reveal.
The cost of lending to students who are not from Britain or the EU has ballooned by 40pc since 2021-22.
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by Telegraph Money shows the cost of loans for students who are non-UK nationals was more than £4bn in 2024-25, up from £3.2bn in 2021-22.
MPs have called for student loans to be restricted to British students, with Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, describing the scale of payments to foreign students as “madness”.
“We should not be providing any student loans for foreign nationals,” he said, adding that restricting loans to British nationals would “save billions”.
Only 56pc of loans taken out by all full-time undergraduates in 2024-25, including British nationals, are expected to be repaid in full, according to official projections.
In December, The Telegraph revealed how EU students currently owe more than £5bn in unpaid loans. Student loans are wiped after 30 years for those who started university before 2023. After this date, loans expire after 40 years.
It comes amid a growing outcry over the cost of student debtrepayments for graduates, driven by inflation-busting interest rates and shifting repayment terms that would not be allowed for conventional bank loans.
Rules set by the Student Loans Company, which administers loans for students studying in the UK, allow non-British students to borrow tens of thousands of pounds if they have settled status and lived in Britain for at least three years before they started university.
Loan repayments are not due until graduates begin earning salaries above a certain threshold, set at £28,470 for Plan 2 loans taken out between 2012 and 2023.
Student loans are funded from the public purse, meaning taxpayers foot the bill for debt that does not get repaid.
Dame Harriett Baldwin, the shadow business minister, said: “If Rachel Reeves had any interest in finding savings in public spending instead of just taxing businesses and people more, this would be a good place to look.”
Bob Blackman, a senior Conservative MP, said: “We must prioritise home students. Foreign students should not be eligible for loans. We welcome foreign students, but they must be able to pay their way.”
The figures cover tuition and maintenance loans to undergraduates studying part-time and full-time, as well as postgraduates who have taken out master’s and doctoral loans for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The amount of money paid to students who are not from the UK or the EU has risen dramatically in the past four years.
Students who are not British nationals or EU nationals domiciled in the EU were loaned a total of £2.8bn in 2021-22 and £3.9bn last year, an increase of approximately 40pc.
At the same time, EU students domiciled in the EU have borrowed less from Britain’s taxpayers to go to university in the UK since rule changes brought in as part of the Brexit reforms.
They were loaned £415m in 2021-22 for higher education courses in the UK, falling to £110m last year – a decrease of 73pc.
This is because, before 2021, students from the EU were able to apply for a tuition fee loan to study in Britain. However, they must now have pre-settled status and meet the minimum three-year residency requirement to receive the funding.
A government spokesman said: “Anyone applying for any student support must have settled status or a recognised connection to the UK, targeting resources on students who are likely to contribute to the economy.
“Where we find abuse, we will stop at nothing to protect public money. Any misuse of student loans is an insult to hard-working students striving for better opportunities.
“We have set out ambitious reforms to strengthen the Office for Students’ powers to tackle fraud in higher education, while the new International Student Levy will fund the reintroduction of targeted maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged domestic students.”