Many students have been making the great annual post summer return to the various student colleges and universities. This year however this annual great student migration feels a little bit different to the usual great party atmosphere. The reason is that this year the effects of the financial recession that we are all in is affecting the ability of students to acquire their bank loans, on which many of the students depend.
There are many UK banks still offering student loans, such as a Lloyds TSB personal loan or a Abbey (Santander) personal loan. The problem with the student bank loans, which many of the student friendly banks offer, is that the criteria may feel harder to achieve than was historically the case. Some of the challenges with student loan criteria is simply a reflection that the economic situation is not that great at the moment, which has sadly affected the incomes of parents as well as students.
The effects of a less than great job market has probably inhibited the ability of many students to find summer work to stop the infamous great mountain of student debt building up over the summer.
For new students the situation is also probably not that great, since there is probably more competition for any student bank loans that are being offered, this is because the job market is probably pushing more people into being a student for a few years in order to “ride out the recession” and hopefully come out into a buoyant job market with some new marketable skills. Combined with all of the above is of course the fact that the balance sheets of many banks is not actually that good at the moment and therefore the available funds to lend to students are more limited than the fat (or great, depending on your point of view!) days of the past.
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