Student’s £275k debt is UK’s highest after English, business and nursing courses

A graduate with the highest student debt in the UK owes more than £270,000, data obtained by The i Paper reveals.

Another has accumulated £69,975 in interest on their student loan debt, laying bare the spiralling costs of higher education for students at British universities on the brink.

Ten people in the UK have accrued debt of more than £235,000 each, and have added at least £62,000 in interest to their repayment sum.

Graduates facing the highest loan debt studied subjects including sociology, nursing, social policy and business studies.

These are extreme cases – the average graduate leaves study with debt of £48,470 in England.

But experts said the figures, released by the Student Loans Company (SLC) via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, expose the loan system as “unfit for purpose”.

New graduates could be paying off their loans for decades, putting them at risk of accruing more interest.

Kate Ogden, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said students with debt of more than £200,000 will likely be making repayments for their whole repayment period – the next 40 years for those who started their course after August 2023.

As such, they are extremely unlikely to repay the loan in full, she said.

She said: “Whether this would mean they had fully repaid their loans would depend on their earnings. And like other student loan borrowers, if they went on to be relatively low earners, they could repay little or nothing.”

Universities are in the grip of a cash crisis, with 72 per cent forecast to be in deficit this year, according to Office for National Statistics modelling.

This has been blamed on tuition fees being frozen at a maximum of £9,250 since 2017 and a downturn in international student applications because of tighter visa restrictions.

Labour has announced that fees will rise this year to £9,535. Further rises could follow in later years, but that has yet to be decided.

When she announced the tuition fee rise in November, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the Government was having to “take the tough decisions needed to put universities on a firmer financial footing”.

But Amira Campbell, president of the National Union of Students (NUS), said the FOI figures show that “student debt is completely out of control and the system is unfit for purpose”.

“Individual students, training to be our future nurses and teachers, are being loaded with hundreds of pounds of debt, while the Government has increased tuition fees just to keep the lights on in universities facing financial crises.”

Highest student debt balance

The student with the highest outstanding debt of £275,207 studied four courses – English language studies, business management, a postgraduate certificate in education and adult nursing.

The second-highest student debt balance is £274,392 for someone who studied five separate courses – from sociology and social policy to mental health nursing.

Following closely behind is a student who owes the SLC £267,532. They studied health and social care, adult nursing, and diagnostic radiography.

Securing funding for this many courses is rare, but limited funding may be offered if you already hold an honours degree or a higher level of qualification and start a new course in certain subjects.

This includes medicine, mathematics, physical sciences, technologies, architecture, and agriculture.

All three of these students took out plan 1 and plan 2 student loans.

Student loan repayment plans

Students only start repaying their student debt when they can afford to.

In the UK, the current threshold for most students who started their course after 2011 but before 2023 is £27,295 and £25,000 for those after this date.

When your student loan gets written off depends on which repayment plan you’re on.

• Plan 1 – anyone that withdrew a loan in England, Wales or Northern Ireland before September 2012: Plan 1 loans are written off after 25 years if the first loan was paid after 2006
• Plan 2 – anyone that withdrew a loan in England and Wales on or after September 2012 but before July 2023: Plan 2 loans are written off after 30 years
• Plan 4 – any undergraduate or postgraduate who borrowed a student loan in Scotland: Plan 4 loans are written off after 30 years if the first loan was paid after August 2007
• Plan 5 – anyone starting their course after August 2023: Plan 5 loans are written off after 40 years

Tom Allingham, student finance expert at Save the Student, said: “The size of student loan debt uncovered in this story doesn’t shock me.

“Up until relatively recently, I don’t think anyone expected any graduate to owe more than £200,000, and yet now we’re hearing of debts approaching £300,000.

“What’s more, a similar FOI submitted in 2024 found that the biggest student debt in the UK was £231,000, meaning that in the short time since, that figure has increased by over £40,000.”

Interest payment on loans are rising

For students from England and Wales who started university in or after 2012, the headline student loan interest rate is increased in line with the retail prices index (RPI), and the temporary “prevailing market rate” cap.

This is a temporary limit on the interest rate for post-2012 student loans in England and Wales to ensure that the maximum interest rate doesn’t exceed the average rate for personal loans from banks or other lenders over a rolling 12-month period.

Interest on student loans

How much interest you’re charged also depends on which plan you’re on.

Students are currently charged:

• Plan 1 – 4.3 per cent
• Plan 2 – while they are studying, they will be charged 7.3 per cent interest. After this time, they will start being charged interest based on the following: 4.3 per cent if their income is £27,295 or less a year, 4.3 per cent, plus up to 3 per cent, is they earn between £27,296 and £49,130, and 7.3 per cent if they earn £49,130 or more.
• Plan 4 – 4.3 per cent
• Plan 5 – 4.3 per cent
• Postgraduate loans – 7.3 per cent

The FOI figures show the highest amount of interest accrued is £69,975 – a student who has an outstanding balance of £267,532.

Campbell said: “This will only put students off pursuing higher education, especially those from working-class backgrounds who are more debt-averse and would be the ones burdened with the most debt.

“With more than £60,000 being accrued in interest alone on some of these loans this year, we’ll soon be talking about million-pound debt balances unless the government acts to stop student debt spiralling.”

She said replacing the current repayment system so graduates aren’t burdened with debt they will never get close to paying back, could be an option.

Universities UK, which represents 142 higher education institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, said many universities have stepped up their financial support for those most in need.

A spokesperson said: “This on its own will not be enough, and we have called on government to further increase student maintenance payments. No student should fail to reach their potential due to financial constraints.

“Although the figures are high, this is far from the typical amount for most students. While universities cannot control interest rates, evidence shows that the vast majority of students earn more over the long-term than those who choose not to take a degree – especially for students from poorer backgrounds.”

A SLC spokesperson said: “On average, graduates leave study with a debit balance of £48,470 in England.

“These exceptional balances are a function of Government policy that in certain circumstances exempts specific courses from repeat study restrictions, permits funding for additional years of study, and results in SLC awarding additional years of funding when an individual demonstrates Compelling Personal Reasons.”