one of the interesting things about the (relatively) new system of 9k fees, and higher repayment threshold, is that this problem is hugely mitigated.

Nope, observation was based on the new system.

If you are paying 9% of your income above £21k and you earn £50k then you’ll pay off the capital quicker and than someone who pays for 30 years at an average level and eventually has the remaining loan written off..

So in that case, someone on high income who has done “better” out of uni pays less than someone whose earning potential has not been as high, e.g. because they went into teaching/nursing/social work/theatre etc, etc.

The whole thing is absurd.

The student “loans” system is an utter farce. Its just a way of kicking the financial can down the road. Less than half of student loans will be repaid. the shortfall will have to be made up by the taxpayer, as will the cost of administering such a complex system in the first place.

A well educated population is a net benefit to everyone in the country. We should fund it properly and stop kidding ourselves that the current system is any better than a Ponzi scheme

A well educated population is a net benefit to everyone in the country.

If half the courses leave you unable to earn a decent living then those courses don’t represent being ‘well educated’.

With all of humanity’s knowledge at our fingertips I’m not sure traditional education is of much use at all.

Not necessarily the case based on that calculator – an investment banker starting on £38250 pays back more than a civil engineer starting on £24500 (and I’d expect a civil engineer to be rather better paid than somebody going into teaching/nursing/social work/theatre)

Not necessarily the case based on that calculator – an investment banker starting on £38250 pays back more than a civil engineer starting on £24500

Nope

Its simple really they start with the same loan principle but one pays it back over a shorter period because they are earning more.

Substitute “student loan” with “mortgage” and it is exactly the same. If you pay your mortgage off in 20 years rather than 25 you’ll pay less overall

Except you don’t get to write off a mortgage after 30 years. Have you actually tried the calculator?

Not necessarily the case based on that calculator – an investment banker starting on £38250 pays back more than a civil engineer starting on £24500

And a marketing person starting on £26,000 pays back £55k – more than the investment banker.

I didn’t write the tool but there seems something odd about the civil engineer calculation.

I don’t know enough about the income profiles of the different careers – I looked at their examples of high and medium earners as a comparison.

Have you actually tried the calculator?

Have You?

Civil Engineer Starting Salary 24,500

Loan at start of repayments £40,136
Total repayments £56,065
Repayment term 23 years, 11 months

Investment Banker Starting Salary 37,500

Loan at start of repayments £40,136
Total repayments £49,353
Repayment term 12 years, 5 months

What am I missing?

Defund all the neo-marxist / postmodern humanities before we have conversations about scrapping fees . The ideological homogeneity of such institutions has reached it’s zenith – Thus communists like JC want to mobilise the long march through proliferation of ‘free’ higher education.

I’m not quite sure, because:

Civil Engineer Starting Salary 24,500

Loan at start of repayments £40,136
Total repayments £45,640
Repayment term 30 years
Initial loan repaid 85%

It’s assuming much less wage inflation for the engineers from what seems a decent starting salary. From personal experience that’s quite close to realism.

richmtb – Member

The student “loans” system is an utter farce. Its just a way of kicking the financial can down the road. Less than half of student loans will be repaid. the shortfall will have to be made up by the taxpayer, as will the cost of administering such a complex system in the first place.

Exactly this. It’s subprime for students. The IFS has predicted that the lifetime cost of the new (£9000/3% over RPI) is actually going to prove more expensive than the previous system. It’s just a way of hiding public borrowing and of course selling bits of the loan book off to the private sector.

At the same time we have acute shortages in science and technology – we need 70,000 a year for 10+ years to simply keep pace with people retiring.

And the fees have made this worse, as STEM courses tend to need more expensive equipment, labs etc, so the fees were maximised. (but are they all maximised these days?)

The discussion about total paybacks is flawed as there’s no consideration of inflation and discounted costs. Yes, people on a lower salary pay more in actual pounds, but in real terms the later payments are lower.

slackboy – Member

Nope, observation was based on the new system.

now change your calculations to use the numbers from the old system…

[video]https://youtu.be/JS7JmLY8EP8[/video]

Using children who know no better – tick
Promising free everything for everyone – tick
Lying – tick

Just another day at the office for Labour