The value of loans being taken out has increased by one third in a single year.
Student loan borrowings have risen to an all-time high, new statistics released by the government show.
According to the Student Loans Company, around £4 billion was borrowed over the 2007/08 academic year, around one third up on 2006/07. Included in this total was the £2.8 billion used by students to cover their day-to-day costs, which increased by 10.4 per cent over the previous term. A still greater rise was recorded for money borrowed to pay for tuition fees, which went up by 176.7 per cent across the year to hit £1.1 billion.
The government said that, currently, 2.7 million Britons have money outstanding on their student loans; the total amount owed now stands at £22 billion. Maintenance grants, which provide financial assistance to less well-off students, are also to be increasingly used according to estimates: two thirds of students are eligible for some form of non-repayable loan this year, with around half of that total able to claim the full £2,800 grant.
Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, commented: "The changes we have made enable an extra 100,000 students each year to benefit from some level of grant support while they are at university. I want people to aim for university confident that they'll have the help they need to fund their studies."
