Repayment holiday for Student Loans is now only 2 years, not 5

Still on the subject of the extra 10,000 places, which has certainly gathered a lot of comments, one issue seems to have been missed. Or perhaps drowned out in the worry and concerns that are said about both Clearing and also lack of opportunties for new graduates. The fact that the repayment period has changed from 5 years to just 2 is a big change. This was seen as useful because it allowed students to focus on other financial issues (if they choose to), before having to begin repayments on their loans if they were earning enough. It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on students and their plans, but certainly some parents are aware of this issue.  If  Martin Lewis, of moneysavingexpert.com fame has concerns that the student loan scheme is being chipped away bit by bit then it must be something to consider. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/students-fiveyear-repayment-holiday-on-loans-is-abolished-1754393.html

10,000 extra university places – but no money to teach them

Currently the 10,000 extra Uni places are bring promoted as part of the governments response to the pressures that people believe we will experience when Clearing comes around. However the fact that the Unis will not be getting any teaching grant will have an interesting effect on who will actually be offering such places. On the one hand those universities who traditionally recruit students through clearing might well feel this could help them, whilst those who recruit fewer, if any, students via this route might feel less inclined. Obviously this has not escaped the notice of business people http://preview.tinyurl.com/FT10000Places. Indeed if you look at Annex B from HEFCEs letter http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/circlets/2009/cl15_09/ which shows which Unis are getting the extra places it does tend to support this concern.  I understand this is because some of those Unis who are not taking any additional students claim it is because there income would be reduced by £5,000 per student under this initiative, and they do not feel they could manage to maintain undergraduate quality in this case without undermining their work. Powerful words and it will be interesting to see how this might be countered by those Unis who do manage to take on these extra students.