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Read more…If you’re planning to attend university, you most likely need a student loan. While there are other types of loans for young people, most student loans are granted by the Student Loans Company (SLC). We look at how trends in average student loan debt and repayments have changed over time.
The average student loan debt is £44,940 for students graduating from English universities in 2023. This has increased by 141% in 10 years, as the average student loan debt in 2013 was £18,620. The predicted student loan debt for students who started their course in 2022 is £45,600.
Student loan debt is lower in other UK nations, at £35,780 in Wales, £24,500 in Northern Ireland and just £15,430 in Scotland. This is likely due to lower university tuition fees in these countries.
Financial year | England | Wales | Northern Ireland | Scotland |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012-13 | £18,620 | £14,840 | £16,800 | £6,930 |
2013-14 | £20,040 | £17,240 | £17,340 | £7,490 |
2014-15 | £21,160 | £19,000 | £18,040 | £9,480 |
2015-16 | £24,400 | £15,970 | £19,610 | £10,410 |
2016-17 | £32,330 | £19,120 | £20,840 | £11,720 |
2017-18 | £34,450 | £21,440 | £22,310 | £13,200 |
2018-19 | £35,670 | £22,770 | £23,250 | £13,690 |
2019-20 | £40,010 | £24,860 | £23,270 | £13,930 |
2020-21 | £44,740 | £27,520 | £24,440 | £15,130 |
2021-22 | £44,730 | £33,560 | £23,920 | £14,770 |
2022-23 | £44,940 | £35,780 | £24,500 | £15,430 |
In 2022/23, students paid back £1110 over the year on average, which equates to an average of £92.50 a month. This is up slightly from £870 in 2012/23, which meant students were paying £72.50 a month on average.
The average student loan repayments vary across UK regions, with Scottish students paying back the least in 2022/23 at £660 a year or £55 a month. English students are repaying 68% more than Scottish students on average. Welsh students paid back £990 in a year on average, while Northern Irish students paid £1060.
Financial year | England | Wales | Northern Ireland | Scotland |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010-11 | £870 | £770 | £780 | £670 |
2011-12 | £890 | £790 | £800 | £700 |
2012-13 | £870 | £770 | £780 | £680 |
2013-14 | £870 | £780 | £780 | £680 |
2014-15 | £880 | £780 | £790 | £680 |
2015-16 | £910 | £800 | £800 | £670 |
2016-17 | £920 | £800 | £810 | £650 |
2017-18 | £950 | £820 | £840 | £650 |
2018-19 | £980 | £840 | £860 | £660 |
2019-20 | £920 | £790 | £830 | £660 |
2020-21 | £940 | £800 | £890 | £690 |
2021-22 | £990 | £820 | £950 | £580 |
2022-23 | £1,100 | £900 | £1,060 | £660 |
Students repaying their loans until the end of August 2023 will pay a maximum of 7.1% interest if they graduated after 2012 or took out a postgraduate loan. This will rise to 7.3% in September 2023.
Students on other loan plans, including those who graduated before 2012 or in Scotland, will pay a maximum of 6% as of August 2023.
Students in the UK owed £227.5 billion in student loan debt in 2022/23, up by 13% from £201.6 billion in 2021/22. The total value of student debt in the UK has seen a huge increase in the last decade and is 265% higher in 2022/23 than in 2013/14.
The government forecasts the value of outstanding loans to be around £460 billion in 2021/22 prices by the mid-2040s in England.
Year | Total student debt UK (billions) |
---|---|
2013-14 | £62 |
2014-15 | £74 |
2015-16 | £87 |
2016-17 | £101 |
2017-18 | £118 |
2018-19 | £137 |
2019-20 | £157 |
2020-21 | £179 |
2021-22 | £202 |
2022-23 | £228 |
Currently, £20 billion is loaned to around 1.5 million students in England each year. This equates to an average of 13,333 per student per year.
The government expects that just over a quarter (27%) of full-time undergraduates starting in 2022/23 will repay their loans in full. However, with a new system being introduced in 2023 that extends the repayment period, three-fifths of undergraduates (61%) are predicted to repay.
Tuition fees have increased over the years, and this has led to a higher uptake in student loans. While just 28% of eligible students took out a student loan in 1990, 95% of eligible students took one out in 2020. This means that approximately 1 in 20 eligible students who started in 2020 do not have a student loan.
Year | Average loan for the year | % of eligible taking loans |
---|---|---|
1990 | £390 | 28% |
2000 | £2,900 | 78% |
2010 | £6,160 | 86% |
2020 | £15,030 | 95% |
The average debt per person is estimated to be £34,546 in 2023. We explore the latest personal debt statistics in the UK.
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