Student debt DOUBLES to £5.5billion under the SNP
STUDENT debt in Scotland has more than doubled over the past decade, and stood at £5.5billion last year.
The SNP ditched a pledge to cancel all student debt after coming to power in 2007, when the figure stood at about £2billion.
Nearly £600million was effectively written off last year, and the huge amount owed has fuelled concern over the financial pressures faced by students despite the SNP’s policy of ‘free’ tuition.
While Scots students do not pay fees, many take out loans to help with expenses such as accommodation.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘Scotland’s future prosperity and the success of its young people depends on a thriving university sector.
‘The level of student support matters so much to the decision made by our young people and that is why so many of them are angry that student loan debt has skyrocketed despite the SNP’s promises to eradicate it.
‘It is high time the SNP reviewed its higher education funding policies to ensure the sector is much more sustainable in the future.’
An Audit Scotland report showed the Student Awards Agency Scotland gave loans totalling £533.6million in 201819 – an increase of 185 per cent from £187million in 2008-09.
It also reveals loans debt rose from £2.4billion in 201011 to £5.5billion in 2018-19.
Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, said: ‘These loans need to be repaid in full by either the students or the state, so it’s important the figures are clearly reported to ensure costs are sustainable and the impact on individual students is understood.’
Former students employed in the UK begin repaying loans
‘Promises to eradicate it’
once they start earning more than the salary threshold – £18,935 for 2019-20. The Scottish Government has committed to raising this to £25,000 from April 2021.
In 2018-19, £7million of the total loan debt was officially written off.
This happens where the graduate becomes permanently unable to work, or reaches a time-bar on having to repay outstanding cash.
Audit Scotland said ministers effectively wrote off a further £590million they do not expect to be repaid last year.
Liam McCabe, president of the National Union of Students in Scotland, said: ‘It is Scotland’s poorest students that are carrying most of this burden, at an unacceptable average of £23,200 in loans.’
Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘When the SNP came to power they promised to “dump the debt monster”. Instead they slashed student grants and bursaries and looked on as students were forced into borrowing more to survive.’
He said it was ‘particularly worrying… that it is students from the most deprived areas that are borrowing the most’.
Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead said: ‘Our commitment to free tuition means that, unlike elsewhere in the UK, Scottish students studying in Scotland do not incur additional debt of up to £27,000 and average student loan debt in Scotland is the lowest in the UK.’
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