18 June 2013 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
The government is actively considering selling the student loan book, according to the BIS response to an FOI request from the Guardian this week. The response to the request revealed that the government had been considering a report by Rothschild Bank for BIS, first presented in 2011, that outlined possible conditions under which the government could take the student loan book to market.
One of the most contentious issues in the study was the suggestion that, as part of any deal, the government could lift the cap on the interest rates of historical loans, currently limited to the lowest option of RPI or bank base-rate +1%. The existence of the report has prompted strong responses from the NUS and Shadow Universities Minister Shabana Mahmood, with the latter calling the proposals “outrageous… a complete betrayal of the 3.6million affected students who thought they were taking out loans on completely different terms”. Other commentators have been equally unhappy about the bank’s report, with Angus Hanton in the Guardian saying the proposals in the feasibility study constitute “nothing less than intergenerational theft”, and Andrew McGettigan calling it “short-termist and contemptuous of [UK] citizens”.
BIS has responded to the press coverage, with the Secretary of State Dr Vince Cable stating that he had ruled out “categorically changing the terms of interest rates charged to graduates with existing student loans taken out before 2012”, however he added that “Work on the feasibility of selling the outstanding student debt continues.”
