Student finance should be made more flexible, with borrowers allowed to vary loan amounts dependent on need, MPs have been told.
Other submissions to the ongoing House of Commons Treasury Select Committee inquiry into student loans and the taxation of graduates stress that new ways need to be found to force higher earners to pay more into the system.
But for some, the review, announced earlier this year amid widespread discontent with the current system, is not going far enough.
Independent Higher Education, which represents more than 90 specialist and independent institutions, writes in its submission that the question of university funding – which is not being looked at by the committee – is “inseparable” from conversations about the fairness of student loans.
Sector mission group University Alliance also said that there could be “unintended consequences” if the student loan system is reviewed “in isolation from its core purpose”, particularly as universities are struggling financially.
