Save our students

Exorbitant loans are bad for graduates and for universities. The debt trap must be fixed

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In the early 1990s, fewer than one in five school leavers in England and Wales went on to higher education. Now about half do. In the interim, Labour, coalition and Conservative governments introduced fees and loans to expand access to universities and create a new way of funding them. At first it worked.

Not any more. Nearly 6 million graduates are burdened with loans whose interest rates hit middle earners hardest. For two-thirds of this group, their student debt is rising faster than they can pay it off. Two million more graduates are on a new scheme with lower interest rates but a longer and more regressive repayment schedule.