Cost of a university degree far higher than expected

The true cost of a university degree will rocket to up to £100,000 (US$161,000), writes Paul Gallagher for The Independent. Thousands of current students will end up paying that amount in the course of their careers because of interest charges and other fees – several times the £27,000 or £36,000 in fees that most three- and four-year courses charge.

The landmark figure, revealed in the government's own documents, is far higher than the £70,000 in repayments that it was previously thought students would end up paying over their lifetimes. The government figures confirm that graduates who find well-paid jobs will be able to save tens of thousands of pounds by paying off their loans more quickly than the vast majority of their counterparts on middle incomes.

Even before they started in September, every student was hit with a hidden charge: for repayment purposes, the total cost of tuition is backdated to day one, meaning that the majority of the 300,000 three-year students and 117,000 four-year students currently studying will graduate with an extra £3,300 or £5,000 bill respectively, according to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website. Many students will repay up to four times the cost of their tuition during the 30 years following graduation.
Full report on The Independent site