Could loans provide a safety-net for a means-tested top-up fees system?
In the US, federal and private loans provide a fall-back option for those unable to gather sufficient grants or scholarships to fund themselves through University. It might be thought that a similar programme, introduced in the UK, could mitigate the problems above mentioned with regard to means-testing payment of top-up fees. Dearing warmed against the private sector as a source of student loans, feeling it would be inefficient and potentially unfair. However, this advice was largely ingored. If proponents of top-up fees argue that they are required due to reticence on the part of the Government to adequately fund Higher Education, there is little likelihood that the same Government would set up a public loans scheme. To do so would be to go against the current trend of privatisation of loans schemes such as that of the Student Loans Company, and to increase the Public Sector Borrowing Rate. Nonetheless, the section below considering the merits of loans shall centre on the “best-case”
