Average student in England leaves university with £47,700 debt - is a degree worth it?

Student loans are made up of two components, external: a loan for tuition feesa maintenance loan for living costsMost people are entitled to the tuition fee element, which is equal to the annual cost of their course. Maintenance loans are means-tested, so how much you can borrow depends on your family's income, and may not cover your actual bills.The maximum maintenance loan for students in England is also set to increase by inflation every year from 2026. For example, the maximum maintenance loan for students from England who live away from their parents outside London will increase to £10,830 for 2026-27, up from £10,544 the year before.You are charged interest on your total loan from the day you take it out, but do not have to start paying it back until your annual income reaches a certain level.Once you reach that level, you make a regular payment which covers both your tuition fees and maintenance loans.Repayment rules are also different across the UK. They changed in England in 2023, meaning current and future students are likely to pay back more, over a longer period of time, than those who went to university earlier.Money saving expert Martin Lewis said the extended repayment period would increase "costs by thousands" for lower and mid-earners., externalGraduates in England who became liable to pay back their loans in April 2026 had an average debt of £47,730, external, according to the Student Loans Company - down from £53,000 the year before.That's partly because this was the first year that any students who took out Plan 5 loans – introduced in England in 2023 – became eligible to repay, and their loans accrue less interest than earlier Plan 2 loans.Plan 5 borrowers accounted for more than 10% of the total number of borrowers in the 2025-26 financial year.Recent research, external from Hepi and AdvanceHE suggests that 45% of undergraduate students think the value for money of their course is "good" or "very good", up from 37% last year and the highest proportion recorded in more than ten years.Whether or not university can be considered "worth it" will vary from person to person, depending on what they want to get out of it.When thinking about the financial cost, it's important to consider that, once graduates earn a certain amount, they are required to pay back student loans over a period of up to 40 years. MPs launched an inquiry into student loans in England this year amid "widespread dissatisfaction" over repayment terms. In general, graduates can expect to earn more than non-graduates, according to government statistics from 2024., externalMedian pay for working-age graduates rose to £42,000 in 2024, ahead of the £30,500 earned by non-graduates - though this data does not account for external factors, like prior academic attainment.However, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), external has said that when taking account of inflation, graduate wages have declined in real terms - and the level of the decline varies depending on which job you're in.When measured against prices in 2015, graduates surveyed in 2022 were earning £448 per year less on average than their counterparts who graduated three years earlier.Earnings also depend on the subject studied and university attended.Research published in 2020 by the IFS think tank, external in England suggests that, on average, women who study creative arts and languages degrees earn the same amount in their lifetime as if they had not gone to university.In contrast, women who study law, economics or medicine earn over £250,000 more during their career than if they did not have a degree.Men who studied creative arts on average earn less across their lifetimes than if they had not attended university. Male medicine or economics graduates earn £500,000 more.