Best way to pay off student loans?

[SueEllen]

'COURSE you have

People like that do exist.

He can count them on one hand - OK two fingers.

[d000hg]

'COURSE you have

I didn't say I was one of them. Why would I possibly have any interest to lie about that?
Apart from anything else, the requirements to get into Durham are right at the top end of what many can aim for, getting in is an achievement rather than a 2nd choice. Many don't even consider applying for Oxbridge.

[Gibbon]

'COURSE you have

nemo repente fuit stultissimus

[OwlHoot]

Isn't that the argument we use to say those that are paying now, and in debt, should pay for their fees as a loan because they benefit. ..

TBF we all benefit if they get, say, an MSc in nuclear engineering or similar, and don't hop it to the US or somewhere on graduation.

[Whorty]

It was a bit tongue in cheek TBH. I don't think the idea of low-cost loans is a bad one especially when linked to PAYE. What I strongly dislike are student loans that are making someone a profit.

Is university education something the state should fund, like school education and healthcare? I don't particularly want my taxes to go up to pay for people wasting 3 years of their life. We're obviously a bit of a student hub here in Durham and it's amazing how things have changed - rather than 4 people sharing a house and paying £50p/w each, they are renting specialist luxury student accommodation (cinemas, gyms, etc) at 3X that. Presumably because they just take out the whacking great loan on offer and spend it all. Poor decision making.

I think the course fees should be free ... so that wipes £27k off the debt and should be funded by a 'graduate tax'.

The living costs is a different issue, but maybe a means tested grant for the poorest students, and traditional SL for everyone else that is paid back as now (but at sensible interest rates). Then the extravagance of the student lifestyle is directly linked to the debt at the end of the study.

I just struggle with charging students £27k for course fees when we had it all for free. Just doesn't sit well with me.

[edison]

Like pensions the government would love to take even more of your cash forever because you work hard, its fair you pay back what you owe and a little extra to pay the money borrowed by the less successful.

Even with modern loans £50K is the normal, it sounds a lot but if you earn £200-400k more with far better working conditions its worth it.

Its been a long time since anyone said to me 'do this stupid thing I just thought up or you are out of a job' plenty of mates put up with that tulip daily.

Now thanks to government stupidity on energy security all the debt is going to be inflated away anyway.

That £200-400k increased earnings is way out of date now. Detailed analysis for the Dept of Education in 2020 showed the average lifetime earnings premium is just £100k. For 20% of graduates, they would have been better off not going to university.

So much depends on the subject you did and in some ways, more importantly, what university you went to.

[edison]

Non-means tested living grants, no fees to pay and I believe you could even sign on between terms although that last part ended just before I went.

The cost of university is absurd now, you're looking at £60k minimum (fees and living) across three years, and even worse is the criminal rate of interest (I read 11%??!) on the loan. How can any of this be justified? Loans, OK, but surely at subsidised rate of interest, let alone an overinflated one.

As far as the old "graduates earn more so they should pay it back" line of thinking goes, I think you can look at this two ways. Graduates earn roughly £400k more over their lifetime than non-graduates, all of it at the higher rate of tax. So graduates are already paying nearly £200k more in tax over their working lives, more than enough to justify at least the fees component of their education IMO. If you were running the country as a business (not necessarily a great idea but that's another topic), then you would consider this a profitable payback on the cost of training staff.

It's nowhere near £400k extra earnings for most graduates now.

However, if you've got a Computer Science degree from Oxford, you are the highest paid new graduate in the country - £65k median salary after a year. That's about double the national average.

[d000hg]

I just struggle with charging students £27k for course fees when we had it all for free. Just doesn't sit well with me.

just think how much those who paid 27k will struggle if it changes back!

Bursaries/golden hellos are sometimes suggested for core subjects in the same way those training to be teachers in STEM subjects. I can see the attraction but honestly I don't know what I think on fees. As a centrist I'm torn in two directions. I wonder what it actually costs a university?

[OwlHoot]

Isn't it always said there is a chronic teacher shortage? If there is then maybe a significant chunk of a graduate's student loan should be reimbursed (in addition to paying them a normal teacher's salary) for each year they choose to teach after graduation or while between jobs subsequently.

[jamesbrown]

I wonder what it actually costs a university?

A lot more than the maximum (home) fees for all subjects involving lab work. There are massive cross-subsidies from the humanities.