Student loan statistics

Student loans are the main method of direct government support for higher education students. Money is loaned to students on subsidised terms to help towards their maintenance costs and to cover the cost of tuition fees.

Graduates repay student loans to the government after their earnings exceed the threshold level. These loans are therefore one form of private contributions towards the costs of higher education. The student loans system aims to ensure that upfront costs do not deter potential students. Graduates repay student loans, and they generally have above average incomes.

This note gives a background to student loans, statistics on their take-up, total value owed, repayment, public expenditure, arguments for reform and factors that affect take-up. Student Loans Company data used to cover the UK as a whole, but devolution of student support arrangements caused a change in their geographical coverage. The figures from 2006-07 in this note are for England only.

More detail and background on the subject is included in the full PDF report which can be dowloaded from the link at the top of the page. Long term time series on the value and take up of loans and the amount lent, repaid and the balance outstanding is included in the downloadable Excel file [link above under 'supporting documents'].

Scale of student loans in England

Currently almost £21 billion per year is loaned to around 1.5 million higher education students in England. The value of outstanding loans at the end of March 2025 reached £267 billion. The Government forecasts the value of outstanding loans to reach around £500 billion (2023‑24 prices) by the late-2040s.

The average debt among borrowers who finished their course in 2024 was £53,000 when they first became liable to repay this debt (April 2025). Average debt is substantially lower in the rest of the UK.

The Government forecasts that around 56% of full-time undergraduates starting in 2024/25 would repay them in full. This is more than double the forecast for the 2022/23 cohort (32%) because of reforms to student loan repayments for new students.

Student loans in England are large by international standards. The latest OECD analysis found that the average loan in England was substantially higher than in any other country included in the analysis.

Trends in interest rates, amounts loaned and outstanding debt

The maximum interest rate on Plan 2 (post-2012) loans is currently 7.3%. The same rate applies to Plan 3 (postgraduate) loans. The rate on Plan 5 (new undergraduates from 2023/24) loans is lower at 3.2%, the same as for Plan 1 (pre-2012) loans.

Source: Student Loans Company, Student Loans in England: Financial year 2024-25 (and earlier)

Source: Student Loans Company, Student Support for Higher Education in England 2025 (and earlier)

Recent reforms to student loan repayments

On 19 February 2018, then Prime Minister Theresa May announced that there would be a “wide-ranging review into post-18 education” including how future students will contribute to the cost of their studies. More detail can be found at: Review of Post-18 Education and Funding.

The Review report was published on 30 May 2019, Independent panel report to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding. The Library’s briefing paper The Post-18 Education Review (the Augar Review) recommendations give more detail.

The Government’s final conclusions on this review were published on 24 February 2022. They made a number of changes to repayment terms for both new and existing student loan borrowers. The Library’s briefing paper The Post-18 Education and Funding Review: Government conclusion gives more details of the proposals and analysis of the impacts.

In Budget 2025 the government announced that the repayment threshold for Plans 2 loans (post-2012, pre-2023 borrowers) would be frozen for three years from April 2027, rather than uprated for inflation.

Further information

The following Library publications give related information about changes in this sector:

• Higher education finances and funding in England
• Higher education student numbers
• Tuition fees in England: History, debates, and international comparisons
• Value of student maintenance support
• Student support for undergraduates across the UK
• Changes to higher education funding and student support from 2012/13
• The Post-18 Education and Funding Review: Government conclusion
• The Lifelong Learning Entitlement

Data from the Student Loans Company includes much more detail for recent years and has separate statistics for all parts of the UK.

The Student Finance Explained series of articles describes the financial flows under the current system and the impact of different hypothetical changes to student loan repayment terms, tuition fee levels and grants. The article What could reforms to student finance mean for teachers and nurses? looks at the additional loan repayments that new entrants to nursing and teaching could make over their working lives.