New polling by YouGov shows that the wider British public is in favour of changes to university costs and student loans, with a significant number supportive of write-offs for student loan debts.
The survey shows the public is divided on whether to write off some or all student debt (44%) or not (41%). Among those who support writing off an amount of student debt, 36% say the government should write off all student debt, while 35% think a portion should be reduced, such that they end up paying back less than they initially took out.
A further 25% prefer instead to effectively forgive additional debt accrued on top of the initial loan (e.g. via interest rates) so that students don’t have to pay back a lot more than they borrowed, but are still required to pay back at least the amount they borrowed.
These three figures respectively equate to 16%, 15%, and 11% of the entire public backing these debt forgiveness options.
Among graduates, support for the government writing off some or all student debt increases to 55%, although this group are divided in almost exactly the same way as the wider public in terms of how much should be written off.
Tuition fees are too high
Fully 68% of Britons say that a rate of £9,000 a year for university tuition is too high, with only 16% feeling that this is about the right level, and a mere 4% seeing it as too cheap.
The public are more likely to say that the previous rate of £3,000 a year is “about right”, with 46% feeling this way – a quarter (25%) still feel that this figure is too high, while 15% now see it as too cheap.
The even older rate of £1,000 is more likely to be seen as too low (42%) than about right (35%).
And 51% of Britons see free tuition – as is the case for Scottish students at Scottish universities – is too low. Scots themselves are divided on this count – 46% say free tuition is about right, while 47% think students should have to pay more.
Current rows have focussed on the high rates of interest that students on Plan 2 have to pay. Those who took out student loans under Plan 2 are required to pay interest of inflation (RPI) plus up to 3% depending on the amount they are earning. At present, someone earning £51,245 or more would be paying a rate of 6.2%.
The public overwhelmingly see a similar interest rate of 6% as being too high (76%) – indeed most say the same of 5% interest (70%) and 4% interest (56%). Instead, the majority of Britons say that an interest rate that matches the rate of inflation is about right (57%) – although even here 18% still consider this to be too high.
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