More than 49,000 graduates have told MPs that repaying their student loans is far worse than they ever expected – a deluge of complaints that has prompted a parliamentary investigation into England’s student debt system.
The Treasury Committee received a staggering 52,000 submissions to its survey in a single month, one of the highest response rates ever recorded. Of those, 49,357 came from people who have taken out student loans. For over 80 per cent of this self-selecting sample, the impact of repaying these loans is worse than they ever anticipated, and two thirds say it is materially affecting their financial planning.
“80% of graduates say loan repayments worse than expected, as MPs investigate student debt system.”
The findings come as a separate survey, the British Social Attitudes survey, shows that 34% of people now think a university education is not worth the time and money involved – a dramatic rise from just 14% twenty years ago. The level of doubt is the highest since monitoring began, while the share who believe a degree makes graduates financially better off has fallen from 50% in 2005 to 36% in 2025.
MPs have now launched an inquiry into England's student loan system, gathering testimony from student organisations, academics and financial specialists. The National Union of Students has urged the review to scrutinise graduate repayment thresholds and the interest rates applied to student loans.
The Treasury Committee also published previously unseen promotional materials used by the Department for Education for “student finance tours” in schools up until 2020. One slide informed prospective students that “the thresholds will be adjusted annually in line with average earnings” – which has not proved true. Another compared monthly repayments of £15 for a graduate earning £27,725 to a mobile phone contract (£14) or toiletries (£17), glossing over the fact that repayments rise steeply: at £66,000 – the minimum needed for repayments to cancel out monthly interest – the figure becomes £299.
A total of 28,275 respondents said they did not understand the terms and conditions of their student loans before taking them out. Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Committee, told the New Statesman podcast: “There’s a real duty of care here. It was really obvious that people didn’t understand what they were signing up for when they were 18.”
Lukas Kaminskis, CEO of Turing College, said the falling confidence in the value of a degree “shouldn’t be interpreted as a rejection of higher education itself. What it reflects is growing concern about cost, debt and whether you should be studying for a passion or to keep pace with the realities of the jobs market.” He added that employers are placing greater emphasis on practical skills and adaptability, and that “the conversation should move away from degrees versus non-degrees and focus instead on how we equip people with the knowledge and capabilities needed to thrive.”
The Government has stood by the existing system, maintaining that repayments are earnings-linked to safeguard lower-earning graduates, and that any remaining debt is ultimately cancelled after a specified timeframe. But with the first cohort of teenagers now in their early thirties wondering why they lose hundreds of pounds each month on a loan balance that never comes down, the question of whether they will ever be compensated remains unanswered.