University debt 'looks set to increase for Britons'
Publication date | 01/07/2009
The Student Loans Company lent £4.2 billion to undergraduates in 2008-09, which could mean an increasing number of young Britons face high levels of debt before they have even entered employment.
Such lending represents a 7.6 per cent increase from the previous year. A report published earlier this year by Universities UK found that if fees were to rise to £5,000, by 2016, a graduate's average debt would stand at £26,400.
Graduates and students owe a combined £26 billion in outstanding loans, including those not yet due for repayment.
Commenting on the figures, Liberal Democrat universities spokesman Stephen Williams said: "This government has saddled graduates with billions of pounds of debt. As a result, students leaving university this year will have built up mountains of debt just as they enter an extremely tough job market."
He added that universities are expected to push up tuition fees further, but such expenditure should be scrapped.
Parents with children who want to go to university - or even Britons with grandchildren who will study for a degree - may be concerned about the amount of debt their loved ones will end up with at the end of their course.
With tuition fees recently trebling and city-centre rent often required, some individuals may have started to look at ways they could help cover the cost of attending university.
Grandparents and parents who have already considering offloading an unwanted endowment policy may not know that selling an endowment is another way to raise funds.
A spokesperson for the UK's biggest buyer of endowments, aap, said that it will always pay more than the surrender value should they make an offer to buy a policy.
He added that some of aap's customers had sold their underperforming endowments in order to fund big lifestyle changes, which may include a child or grandchild going to university.
It was recently revealed by Saga Group that the main reasons why grandparents save cash for their grandchildren is to help cover the cost of university and to help them get on the property ladder.
