UK students from 2000 to 2002 'could still owe £8,000' as new data unveiled

The UK's first student loan generation in 2000 still owe on average over £8,000 each, a new Freedom of Information (FOI) request has found.

It has led experts to ask "is university worth it?" and call it a "broken system" and “government disingenuity at scale”. More than £825 million is still owed by the first three cohorts of the student loan generation from 2000 to 2002 almost 30 years after the loans were taken out, according to new analysis by EdTech company Turing College .

Data obtained from the Student Loans Company (SLC), through an FOI, revealed that 88,057 borrowers who took out the very first income-contingent student loans (now called a Plan 1 loan) in the 1998/99 academic year still have outstanding balances. More than 25 years since they completed their degrees and higher education courses, and were liable to start repaying their loans, only 20,242 of these borrowers, just over 23%, are currently making repayments. The remaining 67,815 are not currently repaying their loans.

According to SLC data, the first graduates, on three-year degree courses, to take out income-contingent loans still collectively owe more than £580 million, suggesting that for many, the expectation that a degree would lead to higher earnings and rapid repayment has not been realised. Across the three cohorts, the average outstanding balance is £9,374. This ranges from £8,285 for the 2000 cohort to £9,634 for the 2002 cohort, which alone accounted for £584.4 million (70.8% of the total amount still owed).

Lukas Kaminskis, CEO of EdTech platform Turing College , asked if university was worth the cost.

He added: “Nearly 30 years is an extraordinary length of time to still be carrying student debt. For tens of thousands of people, it has followed them through most of their working lives.

“People invest in education because they expect it to improve their prospects. Colleges and universities should be judged on whether they help people build secure, well-paid careers, not simply on how many students they enrol.

“This also raises a legitimate question for prospective students about whether a degree is always worth the cost. For many careers, university remains an excellent investment, but it should not be treated as the only credible route to success. Students need clearer information about likely employment outcomes, earnings and the alternatives available before taking on decades of debt.

“The next generation will have more routes available to them than ever before. Apprenticeships, vocational training and employer-led programmes can allow people to gain recognised qualifications and valuable experience while earning, rather than taking on significant debt before they have even started their careers. Young people should be encouraged to look carefully at all of the options available and choose the route that gives them the strongest long-term prospects."

Astrid Davies, CEO at ADCL , said the current system saddled young people with debt.

She added: "The current system to enable student places at higher education institutions is broken.