Student Loans Bosses Resign After 2009 Loan Payment Delays

Fri, 04 Jun 2010

The chairman and chief executive of the Student Loans Company (SLC) have resigned over last year’s loans delay fiasco.

John Goodfellow has stood down as the group’s chairman and Ralph Seymour Jackson has resigned as chief executive following calls for new leadership from ministers.

According to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), universities minister David Willetts asked chief executive Ralph Seymour-Jackson to step down and revealed that he had "no confidence" in him.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said fresh leadership was needed to "deliver the remaining changes necessary for an improved service to customers this summer".

The resignations comes after an audit of the SLC, which was ordered by the government in response to last year’s widespread delays of student loan payments, found there had been "conspicuous failures" which had a "far-reaching impact" on students .

Last autumn, tens of thousands of students in England were left without grants or loans at the start of their higher education courses as the SLC struggled to deal with higher than expected demand for student finance. The payment delays continued well into the 2009/10 academic term.

The SLC blamed problems with the telephones and a faulty scanner system, but the audit into the chaos revealed management had underestimated the scale of the task ahead of them.

In a statement, John Goodfellow said: "Although there were well documented difficulties, which led to poor customer service last year for those who applied to Student Finance England, I am confident that the lessons have been learned and that the new service will realise its potential."

"I also know that all the staff of the SLC is committed to providing a good service for their customers and I wish them all every success in the future."

Professor Sir Deian Hopkin, the former vice chancellor of London South Bank University who wrote the initial report into the delays, has been appointed interim chairman of the SLC, while an interim chief executive will be announced in due course.
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