73% of UK graduates still in debt in 50s

A new research has warned of a sharp rise in education debt levels in Britain, with three in four graduates still paying off student loans in their fifties.

According to AFP, the study entitled “Payback Time?” was carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) for education charity Sutton Trust.

It assessed the impact of the British government’s changes to university tuition fees that were introduced in England from September 2012 despite protests from students and warnings from academics.

Under the new system, maximum tuition fees were set at £9,000 a year, almost treble the previous fees which stood at about £3,000.

Researchers found that today’s students leave university with an average debt of £44,000.

They also suggested that 73 percent of students will fail to clear their debts and may only have them written off 30 years after graduating, by which time they could be in their mid-fifties.