Increasing desperation for students still without loans
The financial situation for some students still awaiting their loan payments is getting increasingly desperate. This week's edition of the Guardian Student reports on students at Aberystwyth who are turning to wet T-shirt competitions to get the money they need in the absence of their loans, while their union is handing out tins of beans left over from freshers' week because its tiny discretionary fund has almost run dry.
Emergency financial aid is also being given out at other universities, including East Anglia, Newcastle and Staffordshire, where students are still waiting for their loans.
Speaking out of its collective arse with its head buried deep in the sand, the Student Loans Company insisted that students who applied on time got their loans on time. This is demonstrably not the case for all students, while The Rundown knows of students who applied late and still got their loans before students who applied on time.
All of this has proved to be too much for some students. Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb said that he knew of one student who had to give up her course because she was so worried about the debts piling up while she waited for her loan to come through.
"There needs to be a full investigation into the scale of this problem," he added. "It is important to know how serious this is. I will be tabling parliamentary questions on the issue."
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