New government figures reveal female graduates will be stuck with their student loans for an extra 5 years than their male peers.
Female graduates are to take 5 years longer to get back in the black after their university days than their male colleagues, according to new government figures.
Bill Rammel, the higher education minister, announced that it takes women 16 years to pay off their student debt whereas it takes 11 years for men, ‘The calculations are based on assumptions about graduate lifetime earnings, derived from the British Household Panel Survey and the Labour Force Survey. The calculations take account of earnings growth due to career progression, gender, age and periods spent unemployed for other reasons such as having children."
These findings provide another example of the disparity in the workplace caused by the gender pay gap, estimated at 20%. Kat Stark, women's officer at the National Union of Students, disputes the notion that women are held back by taking time off to have children, stating that it is fundamentally down to women being paid less than men.
‘Within three years of graduating, over 40% of men are earning over £25,000, compared to just over a quarter of women. The pay gap is not a new problem - the government knew when it introduced the tuition fees system that female graduates would end up saddled with debt to a worse extent than their male counterparts. In the run-up to the 2009 review of higher education funding, the government should consider whether they wish to perpetuate this injustice."
The figures are based on projections for students who started university 2006-2007 and were published in response to a Parliamentary question by the Conservatives.
Despite the bias against female graduates, Rammel was keen to highlight how the numbers also show that graduates are set to earn more than those without a degree, ‘Separate analysis of the benefits of higher education estimates that over the working life, the average net graduate earnings premium is comfortably over £100,000 in today's valuation."
