[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by JD6

What happened to NERC / SERC subsidies for masters degrees - do they still exist? In the early 1990s, I got all fees paid plus about £10k to live on for a year. The living part seemed pretty generous at the time.

No idea - he was talking about getting a loan to fund it so my late wife sorted that one for him... only cost about £18k all in for me...!

[TodmordenLad]

Originally Posted by JD6

What happened to NERC / SERC subsidies for masters degrees - do they still exist? In the early 1990s, I got all fees paid plus about £10k to live on for a year. The living part seemed pretty generous at the time.

Lord knows, but I had a generous SERC grant to cover fees for a Masters in Software Engineering in the late 80s. Seem to recall that it included living expenses too. Did my industrial placement with the Philips Electronics group and ended up staying for 10 years. Those were the days

[E60MKF]

Under the new scheme, I would recommend paying it off as soon as possible. The simple £40-50k loan in 30 years could result in them paying off around £100k back due to the current interest rate (assuming a salary increasing to £100k over that time).

The current system is quite simply a joke and is not a graduate tax at these eye-watering interest rates. When you can get PCP finance at as low as 2.9%, a government student loan should not be 6.3%..

[jnismith]

I paid both my kids loans back as they went through Uni. I was working then and had the spare cash. Now they are both free of debt and can start their lives without this hanging over them.

If all it means is that they pay less tax through their lives, then it was the right thing.

[Mrklaw]

Originally Posted by E60MKF

Under the new scheme, I would recommend paying it off as soon as possible. The simple £40-50k loan in 30 years could result in them paying off around £100k back due to the current interest rate (assuming a salary increasing to £100k over that time).

The current system is quite simply a joke and is not a graduate tax at these eye-watering interest rates. When you can get PCP finance at as low as 2.9%, a government student loan should not be 6.3%..

Doesn't work like that though. As previously mentioned, its more like a tax. You can probably find online calculators, but unless you're earning serious money quite quickly out of Uni, its better to just accept the payment and let it run its course - most students will never pay any interest so the interest rate doesn't matter - most will not even pay the full amount of capital.

The only time its worth considering paying off is if you estimate future earnings will pay off the full capital and a signifcant amount of interest - then it may be worth paying it down quickly to avoid the high interest rates. But do your maths carefully.


My son will be starting uni next year so I'm trying to be as reassuring as possible not to worry about huge debt having over his neck.

[JD6]

One factor which should be part of the decision is that the interest rate applied to these loans is highly unlikely to stay at RPI+3 in my view. There is political pressure to reduce this significantly, particularly after Corbyn suggested writing off student debt.

There could even be a rate reduction in the Budget today.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by s11nny

student loan is the best loan, it writes itself of after 25 year. dw about the interest on there. no one ever pays of their student loans.

Its not really a loan but just another income tax which stays with you till your into your mid 40s.

[Sasquartch]

I think the write off point is 30 years, not 25 so for a typical student graduating at 21 you'll be 51 before it's written off.

Definitely agree about not worrying about it - if you have any spare cash give it to them towards a house. Much better use of capital. Especially for girls who may well take time out to start a family or work part time.

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by 225

As per that Martin Lewis program the other night
It is still very good for a loan and shouldn't be thought of as normal loan in terms of repayment.

Indeed, Martin Lewis seems to be the only person in the world that speaks sense on the issue.

People liken it to a loan from a bank it's nothing of the sort, it doesn't even need to be paid back it's just a graduate tax that gets paid IF you earn the money and therefore have benefited from the additional education.

OP do not pay it off that would be silly IMHO, give them the money as a deposit on a house instead.

[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by Wills2

Indeed, Martin Lewis seems to be the only person in the world that speaks sense on the issue.

People liken it to a loan from a bank it's nothing of the sort, it doesn't even need to be paid back it's just a graduate tax that gets paid IF you earn the money and therefore have benefited from the additional education.

OP do not pay it off that would be silly IMHO, give them the money as a deposit on a house instead.

Of course the only slight issue is that they all benefit from the education - they are taking up a place and justifying the academic institution employing people. The trouble is too many get no financial benefit from it because they do the wrong subject, don’t care enough to try, or the fact that way too many people have degrees now for them to necessarily help you earn more....

For those that don’t pay it back it’s effectively an extra tax for everyone else!

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by isleaiw1

Of course the only slight issue is that they all benefit from the education - they are taking up a place and justifying the academic institution employing people. The trouble is too many get no financial benefit from it because they do the wrong subject, don’t care enough to try, or the fact that way too many people have degrees now for them to necessarily help you earn more....

For those that don’t pay it back it’s effectively an extra tax for everyone else!

Agreed, it's become a gold mine with a very rich seam for the universities offering a course of everyone doing just about anything, a bit of a scam really.

[Kyuuseishu]

For anyone who's kids are going to be going to university in the future, I hope for their sake this doesn't come to fruition...

I don't even want to work out my debt level if were to do my degree's under the proposed system.

[NotGotABimmer23]

Originally Posted by Kyuuseishu

For anyone who's kids are going to be going to university in the future, I hope for their sake this doesn't come to fruition...

I don't even want to work out my debt level if were to do my degree's under the proposed system.

What a stupid proposal. Let's make the worth while subjects that we need people to do and benefit the economy even less appealing and the pointless doss subjects cheaper. We will have fewer doctors and mathematicians but more media and fashion grads, sounds like a great idea!

[Kyuuseishu]

Originally Posted by s11nny

looks like it changed then, when I went uni it was 25 yrs for me. the problem is that fees are so high at 9k per year so no one has a choice really. who can afford 9k every year plus rent and uni cost. so students are left with no choice

It is 25 years pre-2012, but 30 years post. It is ridiculous really, my 1 year teacher training cost me half as much as my entire masters for Maths. With my earnings both will end up being paid off, but I will be well into my 40's by that point.

[Bobst1999]

I absolutely agree with you.