RGSU respond to the student loan inquiry

Russell Group Students' Unions welcome the Treasury Committee’s announcement of an inquiry into student loan repayment terms and the taxation of graduates.

Students and graduates play a vital role in every sector of our economy. It is therefore essential that the Government gets student loan reform right, ensuring a fair and sustainable system that supports higher education while balancing the interests of both students and taxpayers in sharing the costs.

We will continue to work collaboratively with Ministers, MPs, government officials, and our universities to help shape a higher education system that places student choice and future opportunities at the heart of decision-making.

A spokesperson for RGSU said:

"For too long, students have had to rely on a student finance system that is poorly designed and insufficiently responsive to real costs, burdening graduates with substantial debt for decades.

Successive governments have treated the student loan system as a tool to balance public finances, making retrospective changes to repayment terms long after students have taken on the debt. It is unacceptable for students to enter into loans under one set of conditions, only to see the goalposts moved once they are in employment.

We call on the Government to review all loan plans administered by the Student Loans Company to ensure that students and graduates are treated fairly, that the terms of their loans are transparent, and that the student finance system supports aspiration rather than punishing it with decades of uncertainty and debt."

We urge all students and graduates of Russell Group institutions to share their views through the Committee's survey: Your experience of student loans