By Richard Staines
17 September 2009
A growing student population, increased demand for courses and a new government processing agency ill-equipped to cope are to blame for the student loans fiasco, according to the National Union of Students.
An estimated 170,000 students had not had their funding approved by the newly formed Student Finance England by mid-September, with the academic year set to begin at the start of October.
SFE is run by the Student Loans Company, which provides the finance.
It started approving loan applications this year after criticism of local authorities’ handling of the process in a government consultation in 2006.
After a successful tender bid, the SLC set up a call centre in Darlington to deal with the approval process for all undergraduates in England.
However, teething problems with scanning equipment used to capture student data caused delays at the start of summer. This was compounded by a sudden, but not entirely unexpected, increase in applications, said David Malcolm, head of social policy at the NUS.
He told Public Finance: ‘It seems that whatever the contingency plans were, [the centre] has been overwhelmed. . ‘There were some problems early in the summer with their planning equipment – therefore there was a delay getting things set up. Then there were a greater number of applications caused by the recession and older students deciding to continue in education rather than get a job.
‘Also, there was an increase in the number of 18-20 year olds in the population because there was a demographic bulge. It was a combination of a whole range of things, rather than a single system failure,’ he added.
The SLC apologised for the delays and added that anybody who had applied for a loan before the June 26 deadline would receive their payment when they registered for their courses.
A spokesman said the SLC had taken on an extra 120 staff and increased the number of telephone lines by 50%.
‘This year, we have received record numbers of applications and calls,’ the spokesman added.
17 September 2009
A growing student population, increased demand for courses and a new government processing agency ill-equipped to cope are to blame for the student loans fiasco, according to the National Union of Students.
An estimated 170,000 students had not had their funding approved by the newly formed Student Finance England by mid-September, with the academic year set to begin at the start of October.
SFE is run by the Student Loans Company, which provides the finance.
It started approving loan applications this year after criticism of local authorities’ handling of the process in a government consultation in 2006.
After a successful tender bid, the SLC set up a call centre in Darlington to deal with the approval process for all undergraduates in England.
However, teething problems with scanning equipment used to capture student data caused delays at the start of summer. This was compounded by a sudden, but not entirely unexpected, increase in applications, said David Malcolm, head of social policy at the NUS.
He told Public Finance: ‘It seems that whatever the contingency plans were, [the centre] has been overwhelmed. . ‘There were some problems early in the summer with their planning equipment – therefore there was a delay getting things set up. Then there were a greater number of applications caused by the recession and older students deciding to continue in education rather than get a job.
‘Also, there was an increase in the number of 18-20 year olds in the population because there was a demographic bulge. It was a combination of a whole range of things, rather than a single system failure,’ he added.
The SLC apologised for the delays and added that anybody who had applied for a loan before the June 26 deadline would receive their payment when they registered for their courses.
A spokesman said the SLC had taken on an extra 120 staff and increased the number of telephone lines by 50%.
‘This year, we have received record numbers of applications and calls,’ the spokesman added.
