THE student loans fiasco which has left 1,000 Huddersfield students still waiting for loans and grants will undergo a formal review.

A fifth of first year University of Huddersfield students are still waiting for their loan applications to be processed after the Student Loans Company encountered problems with their application process in September.

The review will look into how the fiasco occurred and recommend steps to ensure the same problems do not happen again.

Nationally, more than 175,358 students were left without a loan or grant a week after their course started.

The Students Loan Company has said that of the record 1,091,653 applications for student finance made by October 4, 916,295 (84%) have been processed – leaving 175,358 applications outstanding a week after most courses started.

Prof Bob Cryan, vice-chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, said they were providing a combination of financial aid and food vouchers to get students through the difficult time.

He said: "We certainly welcome anything in terms of looking into what happened and making sure it never happens again.

"It is challenging to do a degree and to start it facing financial problems is unfortunate and wrong.

"We had made money available to students, but the take-up rate has been extremely low so it may be that they have not been badly affected.

"By giving them food vouchers at least we know they can eat.

"We are doing all we can to make sure that our students are not suffering. We have helped around 100 students."

Originally, it was estimated that around 60,000 UK students may not receive full funding because of delays in administration.

At the time, Huddersfield Student Union president Junaid Ejaz said it would be made worse by the recession, with fewer jobs available to students facing a cash crisis.

Now former London South Bank University vice-chancellor Sir Deian (correct) Hopkin and Bernadette Kenny from HM Revenue and Customs will head the probe into the issue.

Higher Education Minister David Lammy told MPs the Student Loan Company had already announced an internal review, but that external expertise would provide a "frank assessment of what went wrong" and allow lessons to be learned for the future.