EU students risk leaving behind a mountain of debt, after it was revealed that 70% have not repaid loans that they took out while studying in the UK. 

 Statistics from the Students Loan Company show that out of 2,240 EU students who should have started repaying their loans this year, only 1,580 have actually done so.

Since 2006, students from the EU have been entitled to low interest loans in order to pay their tuition fees to study in the UK. As with UK students, EU students also have to pay fees England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Whilst EU students studying in Scotland as with Scottish students have their tuition fees paid for them.

The figure of 2,240 represents the number of students who were set to start repaying in 2007. By the end of 2007, 59% had not started repaying their debts and by the end of 2008 this had risen to 70%. This unaccounted debt is estimated at £3.8 million.

These worrying trends have led to much criticism over the way in which The SLC collects debt. The Shadow Minister for Innovation, Universities & Skills, David Willets MP, commented, "It's very important that the Student Loans Company is as energetic in collecting debt built up by students across the continent of Europe as they must be in collecting debts from students in Britain," he said. 

The collection of foreign debt is a more complex process unlike the UK system where deductions, like tax, are made automatically from income. These statistics also serve as further damaging indictment upon the DIUS after it had already been slammed for being ineffective by a parliamentary audit earlier this year. 

In defence of the figures, the SLC stated that there could be a possibility that those students, who potentially had to pay, may still be ineligible as their earnings were not yet high enough, whilst Higher Education Minister David Lammy also defended the SLC and claimed that he was taking the issue very seriously. 

When quizzed as to whether any legal action may be taken against foreign students who do not pay, he stated, “None of us are in the business of trying to drive 20-year-olds through the courts. All of us seek to remind young people of their responsibilities and that applies both to UK and EU citizens."

The number of EU students studying in the UK has been on the upsurge for a number of years. With regard to Scotland the number of EU students receiving support has increased by 93.8 per cent to 8,680 between 2002-2003 and 2007-2008, whilst the percentage of EU students both undergraduate and postgraduate that are enrolled at the University of Edinburgh as of 2007-2008 stood at just under 9%.

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