Student Loans: 20pc of Foreign Borrowers Fail to Repay
Official figures show that 21pc of graduates from elsewhere in the European Union were considered to SLC debt later in 2008. They were known to have left Britain without any details of their income or principal, while another 3PC had left the country and were known to income above the threshold for repayments, but were afterwards. The total arrears fell to 18pc in 2009, the latest year for which the SLC has figures.
The European Union citizens generally eligible for tuition fee loans only aid, provided they are habitually resident in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland for the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year ofcourse. EU nationals are eligible to apply for tuition loans since they were introduced in the academic year 2006/07.
While the total number of foreign students who have defaulted on SLC debt is less than 5,000 in the two years which Mr Willetts gave figures – compared with more than 3.3 m SLC credit – his declaration may fuel criticism of the way that secondary education is funded. Kevin O’Connor, the head of the repayment of Student Loans Company said: “As the EU-graduates who have become able to pay their tuition loans do not, we have robust procedures for this small number of borrowers to detect. In SLC-off appropriate legal steps to recover the full balance.