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Universities bail out their students as loans system fails to cope with surge
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent9 Oct 2009
Up to 175,000 students are still waiting for their grants and loans a week after starting university amid chaos at the Student Loans Company.
The quango has failed to cope with a surge in applications this year, forcing universities to dip into their own funds to help desperate freshers.
Despite assurances that all but about 50,000 would receive grants and loans by the start of term, new figures suggest the true figure could be more than three times as high.
Details provided under the Freedom of Information Act show 16 per cent of the more than one million students who applied for funding this year have not yet received loans or grants. First-years have been hit the hardest, with just 72 per cent of applications processed on time, the BBC News website reported.
The SLC blamed the delays on late applications and problems with new scanning equipment. This is the first year that students have had to apply for grants directly to the SLC, instead of through their local councils. Malcolm McVicar, vice-chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire, told the BBC he had been forced to authorise 250 “emergency payments” to students at a cost of about £70,000. “Our students are facing serious problems,” he said. “They have bills to pay.”
The loans crisis comes amid record demand for degree courses in the recession. Undergraduates can expect to amass debts of £23,000 from fees and loans by the end of their courses.
But despite this year's funding difficulties, one academic claimed that many students lived lives of “luxury”.
Professor Kevin Sharpe, of Queen Mary College, University of London, condemned undergraduates for quaffing champagne and smoked salmon.
Writing in the Times Higher Education Magazine, he said: “Students pour not from Aldi but from Waitrose, with bottles of wine and champagne as well as bottled water (bottled water!), expensive foods and snacks.
“Taxi drivers lament the vacations, when their trade is depressed and whole parts of the city lose their bar and restaurant customers (I can hardly remember going out for dinner as a student).”
Reader views (2)
Yep, Thought so, it's difficult to borrow cheap money on the moneymarkets these days. As these bozos apparently pay no interest then I recon the govt is holding out for a better deal.
- Steve, Brentford, 09/10/2009 10:26
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Good to see that nothing's changed since I was at Uni then, I remember one of my mates getting his grant in January, they found his grant form down the back of a filing cabinet 3 months after they'd received it, you pay peanuts....
- Bob, Cheam, 09/10/2009 09:05
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