Outrage at British student-loan plan

Press, 23 February 1989, Page 8

Outrage at British student-loan plan

NZPA London Thousands of British students last week boycotted classes and took to the streets protesting a student loans plan with similarities to that proposed by the New Zealand Government.

A White Paper on Education introduced to the House of Commons in November detailed a scheme under which student grants would be frozen at present level,

with students offered in-terest-free top-up loans instead. The initial loan would be modest (about £420 —

$1200), but would rise steadily until it accounted for 50 per cent of students’ total support. The speed with which the loan component built up

would depend on infla-

tion. Students would have the opportunity to take up the loans for only three years, regardless of how long their course was. The loans could then be repayed over 25 years,

with payments tailored to individual ability to pay. The Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker, is pushing the scheme as a way of widening access to higher education.

The National Union of Students is incensed at the proposals, and has organised varying forms of protest action.

The union's president, Andy Firth, says the loans scheme would make British higher education more, rather than less, elitist.