NUS Scotland continues to call for the threshold at which students are expected to repay their student loan to be increased to £25,000. The Cubie Commission recommended this figure in 1999 as the time when a graduate can be deemed to be financially benefiting from their qualification. NUS Scotland believes that until the Cubie Commission recommendation is adopted, students are being expected to repay their student loan when they are not financially benefiting from their studies.
Graduate endowment
In February 2008 the Scottish parliament voted to abolish the graduate endowment. NUS Scotland maintained that the graduate endowment policy implemented in 2001 was an unfair tax on students. We’re pleased to have helped to secure the abolition of the graduate endowment for current and new students.
If you are a student living in Scotland or an EU student who graduated on or after April 1, 2007 you won’t now have to pay the graduate endowment. However, if you started your first full-time degree course at a Scottish institution on or after August 2001 and have yet to pay the graduate endowment, you’ll still be expected to do so.
The graduate endowment is a fee of up to £2,289 that will go towards student support for future generations.
The graduate endowment can be paid in cash, or you can take out an additional student loan to cover the payment. The additional loan will be added to the total loan amount you have taken out during your studies and is repayable under the same terms. Even if you’re not normally eligible for a student loan you’ll be able to take one to cover your graduate endowment payment.
Students who have deferred payment of the graduate endowment
If you have chosen to defer payment due to your personal circumstances, for example you are studying for a postgraduate qualification, you can apply to SAAS to continue your deferment.
If your subsequent course (i.e. the course that you deferred the graduate endowment payment to attend) finished after 1 April 2008, or you moved directly onto another course, after completing one before 1 April, which is due to begin later this year, you can defer paying the graduate endowment until you complete your course of study.
To arrange deferment you should contact SAAS to tell them:
- When your last course of study ended
- When your next course of study begins
- At which institution you’re studying
- When you intend to graduate from this next course of study
SAAS also needs written confirmation of these details from the institution you’re attending. On receipt of this information, SAAS will defer your graduate endowment payment due date and write to you again to request payment in the April after your course has finished.
However, if your last course of higher education finished before 1 April 2008 and you are not presently continuing your studies then you’re liable to pay the graduate endowment now.
Due to some changes within the legislation relating to the graduate endowment, all students who had deferred were initially asked to pay the fee immediately. It appears that a small number of students have done this by paying cash. The 2007 regulations didn’t provide any legal basis for students to defer payment of the graduate endowment fee. This means that, legally, no one should have been able to defer payment in the first instance.
As such, any cash payments already made are considered settled and the Scottish Government has no powers to reverse the payment. The liability is now settled and no further action is required.
If students are unclear on this, they should call SAAS on 0845 111 1711.