Over the last three years we have made little secret of our scorn for the way the Student Loans Company (SLC) operates. The recent anti-HSBC campaign on Facebook shows just how important money is to people with student debt.

So it’s no surprise that there were plenty of grumblings recently when the SLC announced that it was raising its interest rate to 4.8%. This may still be low by commercial standards, but for students who were recently paying 2.4% this is a huge hike. We really do feel for graduates who are starting their careers in debt and then being asked to save for their retirement when most will struggle to even get on the housing ladder.

We would love to see a huge campaign by students and graduates against the SLC. Not because their interest rates are too high (the CPI formula is fair), but because the SLC is a monopoly whose 1000 plus Glasgow-based staff should at a minimum be employed in England, or even better fired entirely and the entire loan portfolio sold to the private sector. By breaking the SLC’s government mandated monopoly, would rates rise? Possibly, but given the intense competition in the international banking sector we think students would ultimately get far better service than they get today from the SLC.

Will this ever happen? Not this year, but as the economic cycle changes due to the instability in international markets, and if the government doesn’t reign in its spending, then the SLC will have to be sold. Just remember you read it here first!

www.slc.co.uk