High interest rates mean that, for the vast majority of recent graduates in England, student loans have become the equivalent of running up a down escalator. Anyone who started university between 2012 and 2022 is now paying 7.6% interest on what they borrowed, meaning that almost all will see their loans go up by more than they repay this year.

Personal finance reporter Laura Purkiss tweeted last week that the interest she’s been charged so far this year is three times what she’s paid off; the replies were filled with similar stories. Many graduates are watching debts in excess of £60,000 balloon, despite having 9% of their earnings above £27,295 deducted. Little wonder that Andrew Adonis, former education minister under Tony Blair, a few years ago dubbed the system “Frankenstein’s monster”.

Who created this monster? In 2012, Conservative ministers tripled the tuition fee cap, now £9,250 a year, charged for virtually every course. Universities enjoyed a huge jump in undergraduate funding from just over £10,000 a year to about £16,000; inflation has whittled that back down to 2011 levels. And student loan terms were made less favourable: higher interest rates, with the loan wiped 30, not 25 years after graduation – significant because many students never repay their debt in entirety, meaning they effectively pay an extra 9p of income tax for every pound they earn above the repayment threshold. For students starting university in 2022, the total government subsidy for their degree would have been about £15,000 each on average as a result of almost 30% of the value of their collective loans being........

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