UK student debt £100bn

Student loan debt in the UK has risen to more than £100bn for the first time, underlining the rising costs young people face in order to get a university education. Outstanding debt on loans jumped by 16.6% to £100.5bn at the end of March, up from £86.2bn a year earlier.

This has mainly arisen from the increase in fees in 2012 where fees where up to £9,000 per year for some courses. As written in our previous blog post, this is also expected to increase, with interest rates also expected to increase in the coming years.

According to The Guardian, in England, the average amount of debt for each graduate is £32,220. By comparison, student debt in the US averaged at $34,000 (£27,000) per student, less than for UK graduates.

In the UK, loan repayments are made depending on a graduates’ income once starting work with incomes greater than £21,000 a year. Graduates earning at that level are obliged to repay 9% of what they earn above £21,000. However, after 30 years, any outstanding student debt is written off.