Huddersfield University chief on student loan payback plans

May 15 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A TOP academic in Huddersfield has rejected ideas that students should pay back their hefty loans much quicker.

Prof Peter Slee, of the University of Huddersfield, warned that the idea would jeopardise education plans for many students in the future.

But he agreed there was a need to look again at the system as universities continue to face financial problems.

Prof Slee, deputy vice-chancellor at Huddersfield, was speaking after some of the country’s top universities came out with their proposals to a review of higher education.

Graduates could pay back their loans earlier and at a higher interest rate, the UK’s top universities suggested.

Higher education is facing a deficit that could top £1.1bn by 2012/13, and action must be taken to pump more investment into the system, according to the Russell Group, which represents the UK’s 20 leading universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Durham.

In their submission to Lord Browne’s independent review of the student funding system, the group warns the financial sustainability of its universities is “severely at risk”.

The submission says that the UK’s student funding system is “one of the most generous in the world, providing all students with in-built insurance against spiralling debt and inability to repay.”