Complex Student Loans System Needs Simplifying

Fri, 27 Nov 2009

The student loans system in the UK should be overhauled and made simpler in order to encourage more students to enter higher education in the future, according to one expert.

Johnny Rich, editor of online student advice portal Push.co.uk, said that some prospective students, especially those facing social and financial difficulties, are being put off from applying to university by the complexity of the current loans system.

He Rich said: "It is a very complicated system that we have at the moment. People don't understand it. Even those who do understand the system don't understand it if you try and scratch the surface."

"The complexity of the system is yet another barrier [because] if you can't understand the system, you probably are not even going to try because it may work out [as] too expensive," he added."

Mr Rich’s comments come after research survey by the BBC suggested that around three-quarters of UK universities have had to increase hardship payments to students due to on-going delays with loan payments.

Around 70,000 students are still waiting to receive their loans from the Student Loans Company (SLC), which runs the student finance system on behalf of the government.

The SLC said record student numbers, technical problems and a large number of late applications were to blame for the delays in processing loan forms.
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