Students in England leave university with three times more debt than in the US

Students in England graduate with an ayerage debt three times higher than their counterparts in the United States and more than any other developed country, official figures show.

- James Tapper & Phoebe Davi

The data reveals a system that is “hugely damaging for young people”.

Student loans are a notoriously political issue in the US, and the system there is usually considered to be a cautionary tale by UK observers. When Barack Obama ran for reelection in 2012 he was cheered by students when he revealed he had only managed to pay off his student debt fouryears before becoming president, at the age of 43.

Yet data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that the average debt on graduation in 2021/22 was $68,683 (£50,313) in England and $20,569 (£15,068) in the US. The gap is growing. In 2016, the Sutton Trust warned that England’s graduates owed £44,000 at the end of their degrees, while even Ivy League students owed only £23,000 on average.

Averages mask extremes — some US students graduate with debts running beyond $200,000. But the average student debt in the US is lower because more graduates leave university debt-free thanks to generous scholarships, and those who study in their own state are often subsidised.

Oliver Gardner, founder of the campaign Rethink Repayment, said England had the most expensive public higher education cost per year of OECD countries. “That has created a system that is hugely damaging for young people compared to graduates in neighbouring countries and from previous generations,” he said.