Loan silence

The best advice for students planning to ring the Student Loans Company's advice line may be to ring the National Union of Students Scotland instead. The union rang the advice line to check the loan rates for the coming session, only to be told that the company did not know. A quick trawl through the NUS Scotland files revealed a pre-Christmas press release from the Scottish Office detailing the rates, but a further call to the loans company met another blank response.

The union informed the loans company press office about the problem, waited a while, and then rang the advice line once more to be told the figures were still not available. For all the students out there, NUS Scotland says the maximum student loan next session will be Pounds 1,260 for those living at home, Pounds 1,685 for those living elsewhere, rising to Pounds 2,085 with London weighting.