Closed petition Set fixed repayment terms in student loan agreements

Closed on 27 February 2013

Clauses in Student Loan Agreements allow future governments to vary repayment terms over the thirty-year lifetime of the loans. Borrowers should not face such a potential liability. Those who now face much higher fees and much higher debts should get more contractual protection.

Page 8 of the 2012/13 guide to terms and conditions reads: "You must agree to repay your loan in line with the regulations that apply at the time the repayments are due and as they are amended. The regulations may be replaced by later regulations."

This clause should be removed.

Agreements should fix the repayment terms for the lifetime of the loans using those with which the scheme was presented to Parliament (interest rate taper, annual income repayment threshold and percentage to be repaid over that threshold).

Without such protection, graduates face the risk that a future government may decide to extract higher levels of repayment than those currently intended.