Introduction
More students in England are taking out student loans, to pay for their tuition fees and/or for living costs and are taking out larger loans.
Not all students take out loans. Yet we know little about the differences between borrowers and non-borrowers in England, despite the considerable advantages of being debt-free both during and after the study period.
This research examines which students do and do not take out tuition fees loans and maintenance loans. It looks at which factors are the most important in determining the take-up of both types of loans including the role of the student’s family income, family wealth, parental education, gender, ethnicity, and debt aversion.
Student loans in England: the context
Since the 1990s, England’s higher education funding policies have been informed by the notion of cost sharing, whereby more of the costs of higher education shift from government and taxpayers to students and their families. The key cost-sharing policies introduced have been the establishment and subsequent increases in tuition fees supported by tuition fees loans and the replacement of maintenance grants with maintenance loans for low-income students. Continue reading “The determinants of student loan take-up in England”