Is university economically worth it? Newcastle students share their opinions

Newcastle students have shared their views on whether going to university is still worth the financial cost, as concerns over student debt and graduate earnings continue to grow.

A third of people say that a university degree is “not worth it,” according to the BBC, with researchers saying the concern is the highest in over 20 years.

Under “making the tax system fairer and fit for the 21st century,” the 2025 Budget document stated that the government would freeze the salary level at which graduates have to start repaying their student loan for three years from 2027.

The debate around Plan 2 student loans has permeated mainstream media and social media feeds, and has sparked further debates around issues of social inequality and ‘loan sharking.’

Under Plan 2, a student who had to take out the maximum maintenance loans would have graduated with approximately double the amount of student debt than a fellow student who had parental support.

Government forecasts expect that 55 per cent of full-time undergraduate students in England, who begun their course in 2025/26, will pay back their student loans in full. This means that about 55 per cent will not fully repay what they borrowed, including interest.

2026/27 President of Newcastle University’s student union, Gina Tindall, explained she has a student loan debt of £90k after a four-year undergraduate degree in a video interview with the BBC.

Gina argues that much of the coverage citing degrees as poor value is misleading. Most graduates still benefit economically from going to university, she says, and remain more likely to be employed than those who did not attend.

In an Instagram poll, the Newcastle Tab asked its followers: “Do you think university is economically worth it?”

From 380 responses of an audience that consisted of past and current Newcastle and Northumbria University students, 52 per cent voted (NO) it is not economically worth it, and 48 per cent voted (YES) it is economically worth it.

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Despite the results, Gina believes “if I did not go to university, I could not have escaped out of my working-class background,” commenting that the positive aspects outweigh the negative and that students want a better future.

Gina added the current system amounts to a “tax on ambition,” in which those forced to borrow the most, may be those who go on to earn the most, and therefore end up repaying the most interest on the largest debts.

“It feels a bit like a punishment,” she said.

An inquiry by MPs into the student loan system in England has started, and the National Union of Students (NUS) said the inquiry should look at the graduate earnings repayment threshold and interest rates.

Gina explained the inquiry should prioritise immediate, achievable changes. She argued the terms of loans already signed should not be altered retrospectively, including any move to shift the repayment threshold away from the inflation-linked increases students were promised.

She also called for the interest rate charged on loans, currently pegged to RPI rather than CPI, to be reviewed, arguing it results in graduates paying more than they would on comparable loans.

According to the National Centre for Social Research, there has been a decline in those who believe going to university leaves graduates “a lot better off” in the long run, down from 50 per cent in 2005 to 36 per cent in 2025.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “It is important that students get real value from their investment into higher education,” adding that “we inherited the current system and have taken steps to make it fairer including raising the repayment threshold for the first time since 2021 and capping maximum interest rates to protect graduates from rising costs.”

An inquiry by the Treasury Committee into student loans and taxation of graduates began earlier this year, with oral evidence presented in June.