Students

Parents and carers in England have to contribute up to £15,127 a year in order for their children to have a minimum acceptable standard of living at university, according to a major new report published today. It follows a long-running campaign by MoneySavingExpert.com urging the Government to increase university living loan amounts and to make the hidden parental contribution more transparent.

If you're a parent thinking about how you might be able to help your child with their university costs, MoneySavingExpert.com's founder Martin Lewis has an important warning for you, which he shared in the latest episode of ITV's The Martin Lewis Money Show Live. Watch the clip below or read on to see what Martin said.

School leavers getting their A-level results this week should be aware that deferring for a year means they'll be on the new student finance system being introduced in England in September 2023, and will repay their loan for a much longer period, potentially costing £10,000s more.

Student loan interest rates are set to rise from 4.5% to 7.3% for many from September, the Government has announced. The change will affect current students in England and Wales, as well as former students with outstanding loans who started university in/after 2012.

Mortgage broker Tembo has taken down misleading online adverts encouraging people to remortgage to repay their student loans after pressure from MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE). Two pages on the firm's website have also been removed after we told Tembo we'd report it to the financial regulator as the advice could have left many worse off. 

Student loan interest rates are set to rise for many from September – though the changes are yet to be finalised by the Government. Current students in England and Wales, for example, could see the interest rate they're charged jump from 4.5% to 12%. Many former students with outstanding loans are likely to see rates rise too.

University leavers from England and Wales who started university in or after 2012 will pay around £110 a year more than they would've done from April as the Government has announced a plan to freeze the student loan repayment threshold - the earnings level at which loans begin to be repaid. 

Full-time students studying for an undergraduate degree at a university in England will be charged no more than £9,250/yr in tuition fees in the 2022/23 academic year, the UK Government has confirmed. It means it's the fifth year in a row that fees have been frozen. 

Some students heading off to university over the next few months have been wrongly offered HSBC's standard current account instead of the student bank account they'd applied for. But HSBC says it will switch those affected to its student account. Here's what's happened and what it means for you. 

While tuition fees get all the column inches, the biggest practical problem most students face is hidden. The living loan and/ or grant students receive is slashed based on parental income but there's no warning this gap needs filling. Today, MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has written to ministers to urge them to stop hiding the university parental contributions built into the student finance system.