Degrees get costlier

Degrees get costlier

	Published : Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:20 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

LONDON - Getting a degree will be costlier this year with students being expected to pay as much as £33,152 to complete a 3 year degree course. By the time students leave the college they would have average debts of at least £14,779, according to a survey conducted by Natwest Student Money Matters.

Last year, the cost of getting a degree was £28,600, but paying around £3000 as tuition fees has helped the figure jump up to £33,000. The amount of debt too has been pushed up by 5 percent from £13,252 to £14,779. To help wade them through the course, nearly 90 percent of the students are expected to take part time jobs and run a risk of skipping lectures. More than 75 percent of the students have admitted that money, and not their studies, will be a bigger headache.

However the graduate debt has been rising at a slower rate with the number of students leaving university with debts of more than £10,000 same as the number in 2005 at 62 percent, despite the cost of university going up by 17 percent.

"Despite the anticipated cost of university rising by 17% on 2005, students are taking it in their stride and cutting back on their spending, meaning they only expect to graduate with 8% more debt than those not paying the increased tuition fees", said Mark Worthington, who is the head of NatWest Student and Graduate Banking.

In spite of increasing rate of debt, this is to be expected, according to Gemma Tumelty, the national president of the National Union of Students. "These figures are deeply concerning, although sadly they come as little surprise. For several years NUS has been drawing attention to spiraling levels of student debt, and with the introduction of top-up fees this year, debt levels are set to rocket", she said, "It's no coincidence that as applications to universities in England have decreased by just under 4%, applications to Scottish universities (where top-up fees have not been introduced) are on the increase,” she added.