Carole Taylor is preparing to start her second year of university in September. But she’s not a typical student – she’s 72.
“I’ve been retired. It’s quite boring,” she says. “You join things, I am an avid joiner of things, and nothing is very important because everybody is on the retirement wheel. It very quickly descends into talking about health problems.”
The grandmother-of-two is studying English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. To fund her tuition fees, Taylor has taken out a student loan. Currently, a year’s tuition for a student in England is £9,250, but this is set to rise in September to £9,535.
But from 2027, students like her – those aged over 60 – will no longer be able to take out government-backed loans to cover their university fees.
Taylor hopes that she will be able to finish her degree before that, but says she’s frustrated for others who won’t get the same opportunity. “It’s just very hard to think of them stopping it. Don’t pull the plug on us!
“We’re a learning, growing, thriving group of people who don’t want to be consigned to the care system just yet.”
‘I didn’t enter into it thinking I have a freebie’
Last year, more than 1,000 students over the state pension age of 66 borrowed from the Student Loans Company (SLC) to cover their fees, data provided to The Telegraph under Freedom of Information rules revealed.
More than 3,800 students over the age of 60 took out loans, with 1,824 also taking out maintenance loans. Since 2020, 18,127 loans have been taken out by students over the age of 60.
Around £20bn a year is loaned to 1.5 million students, according to a briefing by the House of Commons. The value of outstanding loans is forecast to hit £500bn by the late 2040s, government predictions show.
They are only repaid once the graduate earns over a certain threshold, which is currently £25,000. The outstanding loan is then wiped out either 30 or 40 years after the degree is finished – depending on when the student started. For older students, this means that loans are often not repaid at all. The outstanding loan balance for those aged over 60 is close to £50m, according to the SLC.
The “Lifelong Learning Entitlement” will replace the existing higher-education funding system and will provide all new learners with a tuition fee loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years of post-18 education. But tuition fee loans for those aged over 60 will be specifically banned.
Taylor left school at 16 and went to work for the gas board with her mother, before moving to Norwich and having her children. She did a foundation year before starting her degree because she didn’t have A-levels, so she has already been studying for two years.
She planned to do a master’s degree, if she could afford it, once she had finished her undergraduate studies. But she won’t get any government funding to do it because people aged over 60 are not eligible for student loans to fund postgraduate courses.
She says: “I never entered into it thinking, ‘Oh great, I’ve got a freebie, I don’t have to pay this back.’”
Taylor says that she has a plan to repay her loans. Having lost her son Jonathan to addiction, she did a counselling course in 2009, and then did voluntary work in prisons. She wants to create a series of books for children of prisoners and addicts.
Existing schemes allow prisoners to record video messages of themselves reading books for their children to play before bed, as she knows from her previous experience in the system.
“I started working in rehab just after he died,” she says. “It was very, very difficult. It’s something that hits you all the time.”
Taylor says the work helps her feel close to her son. She’s won some funding from the university to help develop her idea further, and she hopes to turn it into a viable business.
Paying back loans from their will
Currently, student loans are wiped at death. But Taylor suggests that older students might be happy to leave a contribution in their will to pay down their debt – a possibility she thinks hasn’t been properly investigated.
“A lot of older students are happy to contemplate paying their tuition loans back in time. I think some people will factor it into their wills,” she says.
The septuagenarian says that the studying keeps her active. She walks 45 minutes to campus each morning and she says being around younger students is very rewarding.
“The university has been terrific. They’ve been very welcoming. I find no problem with younger students, they’re all very supportive, very friendly and very open. I feel that, as mature students, we provide an anchor for younger students who are coming into student life and leaving home for the first time,” she says.
Professor Ian Pickup, interim deputy vice-chancellor at the Open University, said: “The decision to end access to tuition fee loans for over 60s from January 2027 will work against the need to help support older adults, particularly those in work, to access education and training to upskill, retrain and update their skills.
“There needs to be further consideration about how to support this cohort in accessing the skills offered by higher education if they are to become unable to access funding via the student finance system at a time when the population is ageing and the country is striving for economic growth.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “This Government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and boosting economic growth, ensuring we have a workforce with the skills for the 21st century. This includes supporting older students who want to go to university to reskill.
“However, we are also committed to maintaining a sustainable student finance system which is fair to students and to the taxpayer.
“University is not the only option for older learners. Despite the challenging fiscal environment we have inherited, we are spending over £1.4bn in the next financial year on the Adult Skills Fund.”
