Government heralds lower graduate payments

The Department for Education and Skills today sought to "clarify" the impact of top-up fees ahead of this weekend's anti-fee demonstrations, with the release of figures showing that graduates will pay less each week after they have been introduced.

A table comparing the top-up fees with the current system reveals that once students are earning above ?15,000, the cut-off point for repayments, they will pay ?5.19 a week compared with ?8.65 a week now.

The National Union of Students dismissed the document as "number-crunching".

Graduates of the top-up fees system will pay back nothing until they earn above ?15,000, compared with the ?8.65 they currently pay at that level of income. Once they earn ?20,000 repayments will be ?8.65 a week compared with the ?17.31 they currently pay, the department said.

The "guidance" reiterates that the reforms will mean no payments until after graduation and that there will be targeted support for the poorest students for the first time ever.

The briefing note was issued to journalists for "clarification" ahead of this weekend's planned demonstrations against the increased fees. The National Union of Students say they are expecting the "biggest student demo in a generation" on Sunday against the government's proposals to introduce a top-up fee of up to ?3,000 a year.

Mandy Telford, president of the NUS, said: "The government's number-crunching is all well and good, but students are people and recognise that debt, however it is dressed up, is debt.

"Poorer students will be put off going to university by the increases in student debt, whether that represents 50p a week until you are drawing a pension or ?30 a week on graduation. This means nothing to the students who are put off going in the first place."