Outstanding student loans in England have surpassed £200bn for the first time – 20 years earlier than previous government forecasts, as the number of students at universities continues to outstrip expectations.
The Student Loans Company (SLC), which administers tuition and maintenance loans in England, said that the balance of government-backed loans reached £205bn in the current academic year, including £19bn worth of new loans to undergraduates. The figure has doubled in just six years. It reached more than £100bn in 2016-17 after the coalition government decided to increase undergraduate tuition fees from £3,600 a year to £9,000 in 2012.
The SLC also revealed that the average amount owed by graduating students had risen again, and now sits at just under £45,000.
Loan repayments by graduates also rose to more than £4bn in 2022-23, which the SLC said was “considerably higher” than the previous years, in part because higher inflation “may have positively affected borrower salaries”.
Loans to students in England remain far higher than those in other countries in the UK. Students in Scotland – where tuition is free for residents – have £15,400 in outstanding loans on average, while students from Wales owe £35,500 and those from Northern Ireland owe £24,500 after graduation, according to the SLC.
