Why £45k of uni debt shouldn't worry you one little bit -based on personal experience

Read the above post. You are all confused about how the system works. This is a progressive tax, it is not a debt by any meaningful sense of the word.

Originally, I wanted to become an airline pilot and as you may know, the fee for obtaining the airline pilot license is around £80,000. I can't afford to pay that, so I would have had to sort out a loan with the flight school and their partner bank, which would be secured over my parents' property. I also wanted to get a degree before embarking on my flying training purely due to the huge possibility of not getting an airline job after the first year of graduation from flight school. So, university fees were the least of my worry. With the fees rising, I would have found myself in a HUGE debt of approximately £100,000 at just 23 years old. I have established that, even though I have a strong passion for flying, it would not be ideal to go into all that financial mess just to fly, so I have decided that I will be going into law instead. Now, university fees just seem like a minor burden to me, even though I will need to get a loan for it. It's a sustainable repayment and, as you said, it won't have a heavy effect on your standard of living.

Read the above post. You are all confused about how the system works. This is a progressive tax, it is not a debt by any meaningful sense of the word.

There's no demand for pilots anyway, and £80,000 is for ATPL, if you do everything individually you can do it all for with-in £50,000....

Do you research

On its own the debt isn't terrifying, sure it's a large amount, but it can be managed on its own. If you were only paying back the loan then over 30 years it wouldn't be a problem.

However, coming out of university doesn't get you a high paying job, most people will start off at the lower end of the spectrum. Throw in rent, tax, utilities, bills, food etc.. and the Student loan is a huge pain. It's a nice post, but it gives off the wrong vibe and tells people "Hey, don't worry about being £50k in debt, it's going to be okay".

Originally, I wanted to become an airline pilot and as you may know, the fee for obtaining the airline pilot license is around £80,000. I can't afford to pay that, so I would have had to sort out a loan with the flight school and their partner bank, which would be secured over my parents' property. I also wanted to get a degree before embarking on my flying training purely due to the huge possibility of not getting an airline job after the first year of graduation from flight school. So, university fees were the least of my worry. With the fees rising, I would have found myself in a HUGE debt of approximately £100,000 at just 23 years old. I have established that, even though I have a strong passion for flying, it would not be ideal to go into all that financial mess just to fly, so I have decided that I will be going into law instead. Now, university fees just seem like a minor burden to me, even though I will need to get a loan for it. It's a sustainable repayment and, as you said, it won't have a heavy effect on your standard of living.

It's still a debt, no matter how you word it, the terms are just different to a normal debt. If you want to word it as a tax, it still doesn't change the fact that it's more money dissapearing from your bank account.

True the weekly payments may not seem as much, but it all adds up. As I said, throw in tax, utilities, bills etc.. and it's just one more burden. This thread is trying to tell people "Don't worry about it, take the loan and get a university education". People need to plan it carefully though, especially now that the fees are rising by so much.

Well that's pretty much what I said; perhaps I should have made it clearer. To be honest I'm not entirely sure how banks see student debt compared to other debt when deciding whether or not to give loans, mortgages and credit; but a larger debt, whether it's essentially a tax or not, certainly won't help matters. And this still doesn't justify punishing people for repaying early, or the fact that graduates are a benefit to the whole country and not just to themselves (contrary to the idea of a progressive 'tax' on individual graduates, as opposed to the whole country).

Yes, I wasn't expecting many people on this thread to know the difference between an ATPL integrated and the modular route. I have done a LOT of research into it, trust me.

What about Oxford Aviation School...?

And well I have a huge passion for aviation, it was my dream from ages about 6 until 14, then I was introduced to life and realism, I still have a huge passion though

The early repayment punishments are a left-wing move to ensure that a rich graduate doesn't end up paying less than a poorer one with the same graduate income, simply because they can afford to pay it all off upfront and avoid the interest payments. This seems perfectly fair to me.

Banks aren't stupid. They will understand that this isn't really a debt. Effectively, it simply means that when they assess your expected net income, they will adjust it for graduate payments, so instead of having an expected income of (for example) £30,000, they will use the figure £29,500 in their formula.

Why do you say " Student loan is a huge pain" You only need to pay it back when you start earning above £21000,

Yes, because no matter how large your debt, how big the interest rate, how much you earn, you will never be expected to pay more than a tiny fraction of your wage towards it. You say "it adds up", but it doesn't add up. The payments stay the same regardless of the interest rate, and eventually the unpaid debt simply gets written off.

If you think this is still worrying, can you give me a situation where you think someone might run into difficulty? Or even a situation where someone would be better of not going to university now, but would have done so under the previous system?

The whole point of University is to get a degree so that you can get a job which will earn you a comfortable income no? Most people will want to earn £21k or above, ergo they will be paying back the loan.



If you were to re-read my post I state that on its own the debt is manageable, quite easily, but combined with ALL the other bills it adds up. There's a reason people don't sign up for 50 of those mobile phone deals, sure it's only £20 a month and you get a free laptop/gift, but it still adds up. It doesn't matter how much the monthly payments, it will still add up.

Let's say your graduate from University in 2015 and somehow find a job that pays you £25,000 a year and you have a student loan of £45,000.

According to this website your student loan repayment is £75 a month. According to the Student finance website the monthly payments will be £75, you can check this here. (note this is for courses starting in 2012)

It may not seem as much, but not only will you NOT be able to pay back the FULL amount (a burden on other tax payers) but it's £75 a month written off, it may not seem as much, but throw in everything else and it's a nice little amount which would be better off in your bank account.

Never once have I said that it's not worth going to University, you assumed this, I'm merely saying you shouldn't go around saying "Don't worry about it, take the loan and get a degree", people should think about it carefully before taking the loan and going to Uni. There's a reason so many people were protesting against the fee rise.

The whole point of University is to get a degree so that you can get a job which will earn you a comfortable income no? Most people will want to earn £21k or above, ergo they will be paying back the loan.



If you were to re-read my post I state that on its own the debt is manageable, quite easily, but combined with ALL the other bills it adds up. There's a reason people don't sign up for 50 of those mobile phone deals, sure it's only £20 a month and you get a free laptop/gift, but it still adds up. It doesn't matter how much the monthly payments, it will still add up.

Let's say your graduate from University this year and somehow find a job that pays you £25,000 a year and you have a student loan of £45,000.

According to this website your student loan repayment is £75 a month. According to the Student finance website the monthly payments will be £75, you can check this here. (note this is for courses starting in 2012)

It may not seem as much, but not only will you NOT be able to pay back the FULL amount (a burden on other tax payers) but it's £75 a month written off, it may not seem as much, but throw in everything else and it's a nice little amount which would be better off in your bank account.

Never once have I said that it's not worth going to University, you assumed this, I'm merely saying you shouldn't go around saying "Don't worry about it, take the loan and get a degree", people should think about it carefully before taking the loan and going to Uni. There's a reason so many people were protesting against the fee rise.

Read the above post. You are all confused about how the system works. This is a progressive tax, it is not a debt by any meaningful sense of the word.

This just prevents people who initially needed to take out a student loan to afford uni, and then got a high-paying job, from getting more money when they graduate.

I certainly hope this is the case. This is all speculation on my part, but I hope I'll be forgiven for thinking that banks don't always have their customers' best interests at heart.

So many words and yet you have not answered my question.

Why do you say " Student loan is a huge pain" You only need to pay it back when you start earning above £21000,

The whole point of University is to get a degree so that you can get a job which will earn you a comfortable income no? Most people will want to earn £21k or above, ergo they will be paying back the loan.