STOCKPORT STUDENTS' FACE £135 MILLION DEBT

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 1st Jun 2009

Young people in Stockport applying for university this year will run up total debts of £135m between them, an increase of a third on last year, and amounting to over £20,000 each, Liberal Democrat MP Andrew Stunell has discovered.

Each student that applied for financial support this academic year will have run up on average £21,500 of debt by the end of their education. This is £4,000 more than students applying last year. The NUS calculates that students graduating with this level of debt will have to earn a minimum of £23,444 on graduation just to be able to pay off the annual interest, yet the average graduate starting salary is only £19,300.

Now, Andrew Stunell MP and his Liberal Democrat colleagues want to see fees scrapped and bursaries extended, as well as proposing to fully-fund the off-the-job training costs of apprenticeships.

Commenting, Andrew said:

"The level of student debt is soaring, leaving a generation of young graduates facing astronomical levels of debt.

"Not only are graduates facing huge loan repayments, but, particularly in the current recession, many are struggling to find jobs after leaving university.

"With the salary needed just to cover the interest payments now comfortably above the average starting salary, graduates' debts continue to rise even after they leave university. How can this be right?

"We need to scrap fees and improve bursaries, so that students are provided with the level of support they need to get through their education without racking up huge levels of debt."

ENDS