[Kataphract]

"pay a percentage of your final salary" is essentially what the student loans system in the UK boils down to. However I am expected to start paying back after earning over £21,000. Maybe a shift to a graduate tax on the higher end of earners would be a fairer way to structure it

[austenallred]

Yes, the UK system is much closer to a good idea than that in the US (which is a complete train wreck). Australia’s model is relatively solid too.

There are, however, some major differences in how the UK structures student loans vs Lambda School:

1. If you attend Lambda School you don’t begin making payments until you’re making $50k+/yr in the field you study. In the UK it’s $24k (at current exchange rate) regardless of what you study.

At Lambda you pay a 17% of income for 2 yrs, capped at a maximum of $30k, so if you get a job for $50k you’ll only end up paying $17k. In the UK you pay a full tuition (generally around $50k + however much you borrow for living costs for four years).

In the UK you have a 3-7% interest rate, Lambda has no interest.

In the UK if you make payments for 30 years and still haven’t paid it off it’s forgiven. At Lambda that happens at year 5.

And perhaps this is the most important: In the UK if you default the University was paid a long time ago. The university gets paid day one and doesn’t have to care. At Lambda if you don’t get a job Lambda School never gets paid, so the incentives of the school are aligned with the incentives of the student, instead of the taxpayer writing a check to cover it.

[barry-cotter]

Yeah but the U.K. student loans are written off when you retire if you haven’t paid them back already. Lambda writes it off after five years of you haven’t paid them their $30K.