Cheap to taxpayers, expensive to students

Postgraduate loans may not require any long-term government subsidy, but students could find them unattractive.

The new state-backed postgraduate loans scheme is likely to come at no cost to taxpayers, so long as repayments from EU students can be secured, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think tank.

The new scheme, announced in the Chancellor’s autumn statement last week, will see loans of up to £10,000 made available for under-30s studying full or part-time taught masters courses from 2016.