by Claire Crawford, (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Warwick), Rowena Crawford (Institute of Fiscal Studies) and Wenchao Jin (Institute of Fiscal Studies)

The raising of the cap on tuition fees charged by English universities to £9,000 per year in 2012 (and the accompanying increase in student loans) means that students are now leaving university with considerably more debt than they did under the previous system. Most mid-to-higher earning graduates are also repaying substantially more. A recent report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that students will leave university with around £20,000 more debt under the new system compared to the old system, with graduates in the top half of the earnings distribution paying back between £8,000 and £22,000 more in today’s money than they did before.

But despite these huge increases in private contributions, it does not currently look like the government will save much money as a result of the reforms. Continue reading →