Largest student debt is a whopping £66,150

"Don't look now, but I think we're being followed"

I'm all in favour of education being properly funded and paid for, whether private or state. However, I think the student loans business has a few snakes in the educational grass. Today the BBC reveals that a student is lumbered with a debt of £66,150. The problem is that debt is a currency in its own right. What the government does not say is that it is selling debt to companies who thrive on debt. One such is Thesis Servicing. Sounds relatively innocuous until you realise that it is really Link Financial, a company that buys debt for a fraction of its face value and then tries to extract the full whack by fair means or foul.

The student loans aspect is blithely promoted as a relatively easy option for students to gain degrees and the like and be in a position to pay the fees. But if the student gets into difficulties or cannot repay accordingly, then the debt can be sold on. Banks and credit card companies make a nice little earner selling debt on even though they may have cashed in on an insurance policy or written the debt off in order to "balance the books". It seems rather wrong for the government to be dealing with third party providers who have at best a wobbly track record in customer relations.

Perhaps something can be done to highlight this, because I fear many students will unwittingly find themselves in situations they had not bargained for.