The government has announced a major shake up of high education today, which includes making students pay back loans over a 40 year period rather than 30.
Only a quarter of students who started full-time undergraduate degrees in 2020/21 are forecast to repay their loans in full.
The value of outstanding student loans at the end of March 2021 reached £161 billion and it is forecast to rise to half a trillion pounds by 2043.