‘Look again’ at fairness of student loans, says Michael Gove

The government should “look again” at whether the student loan system is fair alongside increasing “transparency” around graduate outcomes, according to former education secretary Michael Gove.

Gove, who was in the role when the under-fire Plan 2 repayment system was introduced by the Conservatives in 2012, said there are “formidable threats” to UK higher education, including a “flawed funding model”.

Graduates who took out these loans in England between 2012 and 2023 have been at the centre of the recent debate around student debt, with many growing increasingly frustrated at the level of interest charged and the impact on their personal finances. 

Speaking with Times Higher Education, Gove, who stepped down at the last election and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2025, said: “I do think we need to look again at the fairness or unfairness of student finance.”

He added that potential changes on “everything from contact time to quality of teaching to how we fund research” should be considered as well.

“I think it’s also the case that we need clearer information. Students need clearer information on which courses offer genuine value for money.

“If people want to pursue courses…because they have a passionate attachment to a particular course of study, then great, but I think there needs to be a greater level of transparency about what the opportunities that particular courses lead to might be.”

Campaigners have warned that the high level of student debt is a “curse” that is “demoralising the nation”, and the public appear to agree. Two-thirds of UK voters recently told pollsters that they think the student debt burden is unfair.

But Gove, who held Cabinet positions under four different Tory prime ministers, defended his party’s record on student loans during its decade and a half in power.

“You can certainly look at some of the funding decisions that were made, but if it hadn’t been for some of the changes that we introduced to student finance, then higher education would be in an even shakier position financially.”

Now a lord and editor of The Spectator magazine, Gove said he has the “great liberty” of no longer being in government so could not offer a Conservative vision for the future of higher education.

His former colleagues in the Tory Party have put forward planned changes to the system.

Shadow ministers used an opposition day debate in the House of Commons on 18 March to call for the government to set the interest rate on Plan 2 loans at a level that ensures balances will never rise faster than RPI inflation.

They also demanded an end to the freeze on repayment thresholds, and more investment in apprenticeships, paid for by controlling the number of places on university courses.

Neil O’Brien, shadow minister for policy renewal and development, said Gove’s Plan 2 system was “set up with the best of intentions” but is a “totally perverse system” with above-inflation interest rates long recognised as a problem.

But Andrew Western, the under-secretary of state for work and pensions, said the issues with Plan 2 loans are a “legacy of the previous government”.

“The loans were designed, implemented and operated by the previous coalition and Conservative governments.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves said this week that the system is “broken” but reforming it is not the government’s top priority. 

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com