Student Loans and tuitions paid back from University of Worcester graduates

The request was successful.

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I would like to request the following information to be based on Loans and Tuition fees issued for students that graduated from the University of Worcester since it opened?

Since the University of Worcester opened...

How many took out just tuition fees?
How many of these students have repaid their loans?
How many of these students are beginning to repay the loans?
How any of these students have not began repaying the loans?

How many took out just maintenance loans?
How many of these students have repaid their loans?
How many of these students are beginning to repay the loans?
How any of these students have not began repaying the loans?

How many took out both tuition fees and maintenance loans?
How many of these students have repaid their loans?
How many of these students are beginning to repay the loans?
How any of these students have not began repaying the loans?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £21000-£30000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £30000-£40000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £40000-£50000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £50000-£60000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £60000-£70000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £70000-£80000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £80000-£90000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries between £90000-£100000?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries above £100000?

On average, how many universities in the UK have past students earning a higher salary than Worcester's past students?

On average, how many universities in the UK have past students earning a lower salary than Worcester's past students?

I would be most interested in any information held by your organisation regarding my request.

Yours faithfully,

Kathryn Emerson

FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Emerson

Thank you for your email dated 07/11/2015 requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your request has been logged under
reference 170-15 . Please quote this reference in future communications.

A full response will be issued in due course and no later than 07/12/2015.

Yours sincerely

Dona Marie Steele
Legal Executive
Student Loans Company Limited
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD

show quoted sections

FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms Emerson

I refer to your email dated 07/11/2015 requesting the following information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”):

"I would like to request the following information to be based on Loans and
Tuition fees issued for students that graduated from the University of
Worcester since it opened?
Since the University of Worcester opened...
How many took out just tuition fees?
How many of these students have repaid their loans?
How many of these students are beginning to repay the loans?
How any of these students have not began repaying the loans?

How many took out just maintenance loans?
How many of these students have repaid their loans?
How many of these students are beginning to repay the loans?
How any of these students have not began repaying the loans?

How many took out both tuition fees and maintenance loans?
How many of these students have repaid their loans?
How many of these students are beginning to repay the loans?
How any of these students have not began repaying the loans?

How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £21000-£30000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £30000-£40000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £40000-£50000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £50000-£60000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £60000-£70000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £70000-£80000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £80000-£90000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
between £90000-£100000?
How many of the students repaying/repaid their loans are on salaries
above £100000?

On average, how many universities in the UK have past students earning a
higher salary than Worcester's past students?
On average, how many universities in the UK have past students earning a
lower salary than Worcester's past students?"

Please note that the Student Loans Company Limited (“SLC”) does not know
whether any individual student graduates from their course. This response
therefore covers all students who have received student loans, whether or
not they have graduated.

Response

I can confirm that SLC holds some, but not all, of the information you have
requested.

The University of Worcester has a history dating back to 1946, and in 1997
adopted the title of University College Worcester. Full university status
was awarded in 2005 and the institution adopted its current title of
University of Worcester in that year. A full history of the institution
can be found at http://www.worcester.ac.uk/discover/univ...
. As you have requested data since the institution opened, as opposed to
when it was awarded full university status, this response covers the period
01/01/1999 to 31/10/2015 as this is as far back as our current database can
go. To collate data dating any further back than 01/01/1999 would require
a significant effort, which was estimated at 20 hours and would exceed the
appropriate costs limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (the limit
applicable to SLC is £450 or 2.5 days (calculated to be 18 hours of staff
time at £25 per hour).

On the attached spreadsheet, the ‘loan status’ is broken down into three
categories ‘repaid’, ‘repaying’ and ‘not repaying’. On our Customer Ledger
& Account Servicing System (“CLASS”) loans categorised as ‘repaid’ are
accounts with a status of repaid in full or written off; ‘repaying’ are
accounts with a status of repayment or overpayment and ‘not repaying’ are
accounts with a status of payment or part payment.

A customer will become eligible to repay their loan from the April
following the date they graduate or leave their course. A customer will
repay their loan when their taxable income exceeds the repayment threshold.
Therefore, the customers repaying their loans are those customers who have
graduated or left their course and are eligible to repay, they may not be
required to make payment towards their loan because their taxable income
does not exceed the repayment threshold. The customers categorised as not
repaying, are those customer still in study. Please refer to the attached
spreadsheet for the requested student loan data and note the other caveats
associated to the data.
With regards to the requested salary information, SLC does not hold this
information. SLC is provided with student loan repayment data from HM
Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”) at the end of each tax year. Neither SLC nor
HMRC hold data about any student loan customer’s exact salary.

Internal review process

I trust that my answer to you is satisfactory; however, if you are unhappy
with the decisions made by me in relation to your freedom of information
request, you may ask SLC for an internal review.

Any such review would be conducted by the Head of Legal & Corporate
Services, 100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7JD. You may request a review
by writing to the Head of Legal & Corporate Services or by emailing the FOI
Office ([email address]). In the event that the Head of
Legal & Corporate Services took part in the original decision, then the
Executive Director of Finance, Strategy and Corporate Services, will
conduct the review. SLC will only consider requests for internal reviews
which are made within 3 months of the date of our original response (except
in exceptional circumstances).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Dona Marie Steele
Legal Executive
Student Loans Company Limited
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD

Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Publication Scheme,

Thank you for your reply, however I am struggling to find the attached spread sheet that you have referred to. could you please re-send this.

Yours sincerely,

Kathryn Emerson

FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Emerson

Please accept my apologises that this was not attached correctly to the
original response.

(See attached file: 170-15 FOI Data.xlsx)

Regards

Dona Marie Steele
Legal Executive
Student Loans Company Limited
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD

show quoted sections