Student loans must be renamed, says Johnson

STUDENT loans should be renamed “graduate contribution” tax, the universities minister Jo Johnson has said.

Addressing a Tory party conference fringe event yesterday, Mr Johnson said that the Government needed to “work on the language” around student loans, so that young people do not feel they are getting a bad deal.

He said that he agreed with Martin Lewis, the founder of Moneysavingexpert.com, who has long campaigned for the re-naming of student loans.

“We need to cease to use the terminology of debt and loans,” he said.

Mr Lewis told the event that the language of debt was “”psychologically damaging” and “misleading”.

Before the conference, the Prime Minister announced the repayment threshold for student loans will be raised to £25,000 and added that tuition fees would be frozen at £9,250.