Debt Is The Reality of Student Life Today
There was a time, not too long ago, when a university student’s life was a carefree one. For thousands of A-level students this year however, sweating over the publication of their forthcoming A-level results will seem like a minor blip when compared to the cold hard reality of how they are going to finance the cost of the university studies should they find themselves being offered a place.
Here, unless the student comes from a low-income family earning less than £17,500 a year - in which case the student may apply for a government assistance grant worth £2,700 - annual tuition fees for students who successfully pass their A-levels, and who are offered a place at university, will be costing as much as £3,000 a year. And that’s just the tuition fees, without the additional burden of any cost of living expenses. Is it any wonder then that students looking to study away from home will need to familiarize themselves with a complete package of student loans, as well as part-time work, if they are going to take full advantage of having successfully passed their A-levels and take up a place at university.
To assist in helping to pay for both their studies costs and cost of living expenses while at university, students can apply to the Student Loan Company for loans covering both their education costs and also their living expenses. However, with the maximum annual maintenance loan only being £6,170 – for students living away from home and studying in London (£4,406 for those living outside London and £3,415 for those living at home) – it is highly likely that many students who enter the university system this year will need to supplement their annual income with some form of bank loan or overdraft, as well as, most likely, a student credit card. In some cases parents will also need to agree to either help fund their child’s cost of living or agree to apply for a loan of some kind from their bank to help finance the cost of their child’s studies.
Upon graduating from university, all of these loans will need to be repaid, which will put an additional burden on students to find employment as quickly as possible following their graduation or else join the millions of other Briton currently facing debt mountains that they’ll unlikely be able to repay in the immediate future.
So, whereas a student’s life to use to be care free and happy one, today’s students need to be taught a quick and hard lesson in financial planning and management if they’re going to avoid the modern day problems associated with living life with excessive loan and credit card debt.
Richard Smith
11th August 2006
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