The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
New figures show student debt is soaring across Scotland.
Living-cost debt for undergraduates has increased by 185% within a decade
The annual value of student loans authorised in Scotland has almost tripled over a decade as poorer students are borrowing more, according to an official report.
Audit Scotland has published a paper that shows the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) authorised living-cost loans totalling £533.6 million in 201819 – an increase of 185% from £187m in 2008-09.
It also reveals the total student loans debt has increased from £2.4 billion in 2010-11 to £5.5bn in 2018-19.
The public auditor recommends support should be provided through a mix of bursaries and student loans, with means testing to target those from the poorest backgrounds. It comes against a backdrop of those with less financial stability borrowing more, the body says.
Caroline Gardner, auditor general for Scotland, said: “Student loans are only one part of the package of student support but they represent a significant investment by the Scottish Government.
“These loans need to be repaid in full by either the students or the state so it’s important that the figures are clearly reported to ensure the costs are sustainable and the impact on individual students is understood.”
Owen Wright, president of Abertay University Students’ Association, said the current funding model for universities “desperately needs to change” if higher education is to remain truly free in Scotland.
He said: “It isn’t a huge surprise to us that the need for students to amass more debt has shot up significantly in the past few years.
“The cost of living for students, reflected in rents, food, hygiene, internet, gas or electricity, is increasing year by year, and so the funding students need to stay afloat during their studies inevitably goes up. The funding model for students given by the Scottish Government is currently mostly based on loans, rather than bursaries and grants.
“This desperately needs to change if higher and further education in Scotland is to remain truly free and goes especially for students coming from poorer and disadvantaged backgrounds who tend to accumulate more debt.”
The paper shows 505,800 individuals had loans to repay out of 654,000 who have been provided with funding as of April 2019.
In 2018-19, £7m worth of debt was written off, which happens in circumstances when a person becomes permanently unable to work or reaches a time bar on having to repay outstanding money.
Between academic years 1998-99 and 2006-07, any outstanding amount will be cancelled when the individual reaches 65 years of age or 30 years from the April after they graduated.
In or after academic year 2007-08, it will be written off 30 years from the April after they graduated.
The SNP’s headline manifesto pledge on coming to power in 2007 was a promise to “dump” student debt. Thirteen years later a new report shows the nationalists have instead presided over it more than doubling.
This is a drastic failure by any measure and one that has understandably been seized on by the party’s critics.
It is certainly the case that the last 10 years have seen significant cuts to all UK public spending driven by Westminster. The Scottish education budget has not been immune.
But decisions made at Holyrood have played a major role in the creation of the £5.5 billion mountain of debt young people now find themselves in.
Alex Salmond famously insisted the “rocks would melt with the sun” before the SNP would introduce tuition fees in Scotland.
The free university policy has been beneficial to many students, particularly those from more affluent families who would previously have had to pay.
But it has also starved the education budget of money that could have gone in grants and bursaries to those who desperately need it.
The reality is that our poorest students have paid the price for a perk that many could afford to pay.
Graduates wondering how they will ever clear massive debts are unlikely to be cheered up by glib soundbites.