How to reform student finance? Let´s start with interest rates
(The Guardian Money News)

If it was a bank, we´d brand the 6.1% interest rate shameless profiteeringStudent loans are overpriced, badly administered and probably mis-sold. If they were a financial product that we unpick in the Money pages each week, they would more than likely fall into the `worst-buy` rather than the `best-buy` category. Yet well over 200,000 undergraduates will be herded into them in September.Let´s start with the overpriced interest rate. Supermarket group Asda launched into personal loans this week, promising rates starting at 2.9%. Tesco and Sainsbury´s start just a tad higher at 3%. Meanwhile, the government can borrow on international money markets at just 1.8% for repayment over 30 years. Yet, when it lends the money out through the Student Loans Company, to be repaid in up to 25 years, it applies an interest rate of up to 6.1%. If this were Lloyds or Barclays we´d call it shameless profiteering. Continue reading...