Sir Peter Lampl’s letter on student debt was published in the Evening Standard

Labour’s plans to cut tuition fees to £6,000 will decrease the debt faced by students — any measure that does this should be welcomed. Last year the Sutton Trust and the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated debt to average £44,000 on graduation. In our report Payback Time?, we highlighted the “double debt trap” — which faces both the Exchequer and middle income graduates. Nearly three-quarters of students will fail to clear their student loans before they are written off after 30 years, and the large majority will still be paying off their loans well into their forties.

While it is important that universities are properly funded, any change to fees should be accompanied by co-ordinated measures to improve access, particularly to our top universities, where the access gap remains nine- fold between those from the richest and poorest fifth of neighbourhoods.

The Sutton Trust has long argued for means-tested fees based on parental income. Means testing is common in many US universities and was in place here until 2006. Maintenance grants are means-tested; fees should be too.

Read the letter on the Standard website here.

Media enquiries

If you're a journalist with a question about our work, get in touch with Sam or Rocky on the number below. The number is also monitored out of hours.

E: [email protected] T: 0204 536 4642

Keep up to date with the latest news