Almost £21billion was given in student loans last year, taking the value of outstanding loans to a new record high of £267billion.
The number of students expected to pay back their student loan is forecasted by the government to be 65% for the 2023/24 cohort, more than doubling since 2022/23 which was 27%.
However, many students burdened with high student loans after the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition raised tuition fees to £9,000, feel as if they will never be able to pay it back.
A growing sentiment exists among those who graduated recently as seeing student loan repayments as a graduate tax, with many seeing it as the expected price for attending university.
Save the Student, a campaign group for student finances, campaigns for free tuition for all.
Save the Student loan expert Tom Allingham said: “Record tuition fees and a cost of living crisis don’t seem to have deterred young people from attending university and the vast majority of them are taking out a student loan.
“But despite tuition fees increasing again this year, a rise of just £250 in 13 years, has meant many universities are facing severe financial pressures.
“And on the other side of the ledger, the failure to increase maintenance loans with inflation has led to students feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis more than most.”
A record high number of students in the UK was in 2022, with numbers not reaching that level since then.
However, the loan amount has still risen despite student numbers slightly decreasing.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride recently spoke to Politics Home regarding tuition fees.
He said: “I can’t leave this interview with you going away thinking, ‘Oh, Conservatives are thinking about scrapping fees’, or whatever.
“All I can say is that everything has to be on the table.”
With concerns growing that student loans is an investment from the state which will not be a return, many graduates are viewing the repayments differently.
Capital markets executive Henry Stalder, 23, said: “I view the whole thing as a tax.
“The idea of it is pretty daunting, I don’t even know when I’ll be paying it be back.”
Stalder said that while he did not regret going to university for the debt, he felt that it could be managed better by the government and often feels the financial pressure of repayments.
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