[richmarr]

Well it kinda does, Sutton Trust (an education charity in the UK) did a study that showed three quarters of graduates will still be repaying their student loans when they're in their 50s.

From a policy perspective that kind of long term debt comes with stress, health problems, productivity problems, social mobility problems.

Peoples ambition (and in some cases sense of entitlement) comes from their upbringing; if you add long term debt to that aswell you end up in a situation where even more careers are decided by childhood circumstance, rather than potential.

[gambiting]

On the other hand, my repayments of the UK Student loan are so small that I literally don't care. They are also always based on my income, so if I lose my job - no biggie. No one is going to come and chase me about it, there just won't be anything to pay until I get a job and make more than the current threshold.

I don't see how this could be stressful even if I continue paying some small amount into my 50s - from my point of view it's not debt, it's more like paying a water bill each month.

[richmarr]

You as a reasonably well paid technology professional (presumably) don't care. Don't make the mistake of assuming that the rest of the world is in a similar situation to you.

For example; a starter salary of £28k would be only £7k over the threshold and "only" result in repaying 9% of that, or £630 per year. But in Austerity Britain people on that kind of salary (e.g. nurses) are already starting to resort to using food banks.

Weigh up the alternatives, such as an apprenticeship or a job offer and university starts to lose ground to other options; but much more so for people with a lower socio-economic background. This is the problem.

[gambiting]

I actually make less than the amounts you quoted and I still absolutely don't care. I'm actually living very comfortably on this salary. But then I'm in the north east, maybe in London you have to use food banks on 27k but over here you absolutely don't.

[richmarr]

Sure, it's great to hear that you're doing okay. It's still important not to generalise your own situation to the whole country. As you say, things are different for other people.

[k-mcgrady]

Again, I agree with everything in your post - however that has nothing to do with access I don't believe. None of those things are good obviously but the only way they would effect access would be if people considered the long term issues you've mentioned and decided university wasn't worth those costs.

[richmarr]

>... however that has nothing to do with access I don't believe.

Some people will look at the associated debt issues and decide it's not worth it (open question as to what percentage). Often this will be in comparison to a job offer or apprenticeship.

There will also be people who don't look at the issues directly, but instead rely on the guidance of older generations, and perhaps contrast things like living costs.

These decisions are made differently based on socio-economic status. That's the access issue.

I don't have objective data but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence around of people from lower-income backgrounds making choices because of their background not because of their ability.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/17/teenagers-...