Student debt is set to rise to £23,500, according to the Push, the university guide. This is quite a lot of money, but as I’ve argued before, it’s less than you think. It’s certainly less than the £83,000 the Telegraph argue that a typical three year BA will cost once tuition fees increase. Here are a few reasons why things aren’t so bad:

Firstly, student debt is the cheapest type of debt. It’s inflation linked and thus you simply pay back the real value of what you’ve been given.

Headlines decrying debt nearly always ignore the fact that when you graduate, you get a qualification that sets you apart from over half the population – and if you bother to do well and get a 2.1 or first, you’ll be ahead of 75% of the population. And that if you do very well and get a first, you’ll be ahead of at least 90% of the population.

And, okay, £23,500 is a big figure if you have to pay it back all at once. But you don’t. Bailiffs don’t arrive at your digs the second you graduate and nick your television. If you earn £16,000 a year, you will pay back £90 a year. That’s less than £2 a week. When you earn £20,000, you will pay back £450 a year. That’s £8.50 a week, when you’re earning close to £400 gross. If you earn less than £15,000 you pay nothing.

The only possible consequence of constant gloom-mongering by bodies like the NUS is that poorer students will be scared off from university because of the debt. There are many reasons to not go to university, but debt simply isn’t one of them. Ignorance about the true cost of university – and how it is paid – is such that huge amounts of bursaries aimed at poorer students go unclaimed. This is the real disgrace. Organisations like Push.co.uk should concentrate on enticing poorer students into university, rather than doing its best to scare them off.

Related posts:

1. Student Debt: The Facts You Need To Know
2. Why shouldn’t medics and engineers pay higher fees?
3. Should universities be allowed to drown in debt?
4. Why Rich Kids Are More Likely To Get Into University
5. Streeting gives NUS the right idea

Tags: Government Education Policy, Student Debt, Student Prospects, Student Union Elections, Top-up Fees, University Funding, Wes Streeting

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Comment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.