Student loans: How Government accounting is binding the hands of policymakers

In a new HEPI pamphlet, The accounting and budgeting of student loans, Andrew McGettigan reveals how the treatment of student loans in the national and departmental accounts is driving policy.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has been wrestling with the multi-billion pound impact of student loans. It was spared emergency cuts to the rest of its budget when new accounting conventions for loans were introduced in 2013/14. But these new conventions incentivise the department to control loan outlay and improve repayments in ways that neither universities nor graduates may welcome. More...