The Education Secretary puts a number on it
Bridget Phillipson has said the freeze in the student loan repayment threshold will cost the average graduate about £8 a month. That is the government’s own figure for a change made without legislation or announcement, and it is the number both sides of the argument will now use — £96 a year for someone earning near the threshold, more for those above it. Student finance explained covers how repayment is calculated.
“Student loans aren’t broken — they protect inherited advantage”
Trinity College Oxford’s head of access argues the opposite of this month’s consensus: that income-contingent loans are the reason students without family money can attend at all, and that replacing them with a graduate tax or upfront fees would advantage those whose parents can pay. It is the strongest case for the current system published this year.
“My excuse for not doing the group project was cancer”
A student writes about going through university with a serious illness — the extensions, the group work, the awkwardness of explaining, and the gap between what a university’s policy says and how a seminar room actually responds. Practical throughout, and a reminder that formal support has to be arranged before it can help. Extensions and academic support covers arranging it.
Money is what keeps students on their courses
Research on retention finds financial support — bursaries, hardship funds, help in the first month — is among the most effective things a university can do to stop students leaving. Most of that money is applied for rather than awarded automatically, and the funds are routinely underspent. Ask your university what it has. Budgeting covers the rest.