Maintenance loans for the first term landed in student accounts on Monday
The Student Loans Company paid £0.8 billion in first-term maintenance loans into accounts across the UK on Monday 21 September, and expects to pay £3 billion in maintenance funding by the end of the month. Your payment is released once your university confirms you have enrolled, and a text arrives a few days beforehand. The company is warning of scams aimed at these payments, so treat any message asking you to click through as suspect until you have checked it, and set a budget now rather than in November.
Student Loans Company, 21 September
Staff at eight universities have announced strikes over job cuts
Staff at Dundee, Edinburgh, Essex, Exeter, Glasgow Caledonian, Heriot-Watt, Nottingham and Sussex are taking or planning industrial action over job cuts. Dundee lecturers strike on weekdays until 23 October, Edinburgh from 28 September to 30 October, and Nottingham for 67 days from 30 September; Exeter and Sussex have voted to strike without setting dates, and at Essex and Glasgow Caledonian it is support staff walking out. If your teaching stops, ask your school in writing what replaces it and how assessment changes, and read up on academic support.
Student leaders protest over Plan 2 loan repayments at Number 10 North
Student leaders from across the UK, the NUS and Rethink Repayment demonstrated outside Number 10 North on 17 September, calling for reform of Plan 2 loans — those taken out between 2012/13 and 2022/23. You repay 9 per cent of what you earn above £29,835, with interest set at RPI plus 3 per cent and capped at 6 per cent for 2026/27. Union officers at the five Greater Manchester civic universities want action in the autumn budget. Check which plan you are on: the threshold and the interest differ.
One entry-level vacancy for every three young people in the UK
Work Foundation research at Lancaster University found around 71,000 starter vacancies a week, roughly one for every three people aged 16 to 24 and close to the 2020-21 level. Thirty-six per cent of employers have cut jobs aimed at that age group, and the yearly rate of decline has gone from 8.1 to 12.8 per cent. Allow more time and more applications than a year ago if you are chasing graduate jobs, and use your careers service early rather than in the spring.