Young people need better careers guidance and more flexibility over their study choices, campaigners have said, after new figures revealed tens of thousands of former students are still repaying loans for courses they never finished.
The data, shared exclusively with The i Paper, reveals that 191,500 people are repaying student loans despite never having finished a degree. The data covers those who took out a loan after 2021 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Between them, they owe more than £5.9bn, and that figure is set to grow as interest on their loans bites, the data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Teneo International School shows.
First-year dropouts from 2020-21 now owe an average of around £30,000, compared with about £26,100 for those who left in 2024-25.
While the Department for Education argues it’s “only fair” that courses are paid for whether they’re completed or not, others say the figures point to a “rigidity” in the system, poor options for students, and the unfairness of interest rates that mean debt keeps growing “despite” regular repayments.
