New Labour MP Says Student Loan System Is "Broken"

Tim Roca, Macclesfield’s first ever Labour MP, used to protest against his own party’s position on tuition fees as a student leader in the late 2000’s. As an elected parliamentarian in 2024, he still thinks the system is “broken”.

After A-level results day on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of UK students have got confirmation of where they will be heading for their university studies in Autumn. However, while Roca praised the UK’s “amazing” higher education sector, he said the loan system is “not fair” on young people.

The average student debt for students who started their course in the UK in 2022-23 is £45,600, according to the Student Loans Company (SLC). Since the 2012 student loan plan was implemented by the coalition government, most graduates have also been faced with interest rates of Retail Price Index (RPI) plus up to 3 per cent depending on income.

Roca, who previously worked for King's College London and the University of Westminster, told PoliticsHome the student loans mechanism is “broken”.

In 2007/08, he served as the President of Lancaster University Students' Union (LUSU), where fellow new Labour MP Michael Payne then succeeded him for two terms between 2008 and 2010.

As the student union president, Roca protested against the introduction of top-up tuition fees, where students faced variable fees to make up for the shortfall in funding the cost of certain degrees.

“I wasn't a fan of tuition fees at all,” he said.

"I joined the Labour Party while I was at university. I did have a tendency to march against my own party when I was at university, or certainly not agree with everything my party said. Tuition fees being an example. 

“We always said top-up fees were the thin end of the wedge, that it would be the