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# Student fees/loans good for the poorest graduates
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/student-feesloans-good-for-poorest-graduates/
- Published: 2010-12-13T19:12:05.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-22T10:49:28.000Z
- Description: The distributional aspects of the UK government's loans/fees package looks attractive
- Author: Tony Curzon Price
- Tags: Europe, #Migrated, Politics & activism, United Kingdom, Equality, Democracy and government, openglobalrights-openpage-blog, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 16:12, #appended-excerpt

This graph is taken from the [IFS report](http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn113.pdf?ref=opendemocracy.net) on the education reforms.

The graph shows how much graduates will repay depending on their lifetime income levels. If you are not well off – in the poorest 20% of *graduate* incomes (which is higher than the poorest 20% of all incomes) – then you are paying back much less than under the current scheme which so many want a return to. If you are in the poorest 10% of graduates and you initially borrowed £25,000 for a 3-year course, you end up paying back just one fifth of that, £5,000\. Under the current system, you would be paying back around £10,000 in the same circumstances.

Thinking just about loans and fees (and not EMA), I do not know what there isn't to like about the reforms from a distributional point of view compared to the current system. [Peter Wilby](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/07/ed-miliband-tuition-fees-university?ref=opendemocracy.net) has been onto this argument and it needs serious consideration.

The distributional aspects of the UK government's loans/fees package looks attractive