Louis Rochester graduated from the University of Westminster in 2016, with a degree in PR and advertising.

The 31-year-old borrowed £43,439 in total for tuition and living costs and now owes just over £70,000 because of accruing interest.

Louis now lives in Berlin and has a job an operations project manager for a tech company – but a decade after graduating, he says he regrets taking out a student loan and struggles to see the value of what he paid for.

Louis worked throughout university to top-up the loan – which was to cover his maintenance and fees – but says £4,600 in interest had already been added to his borrowing by the time he finished his studies.

Louis is on a Plan 2 loan – given to students from England between 2012 and 2023 – meaning the interest on his loan accrues at a high rate, which can reach 6 per cent.

Graduates repay these loans once they start earning above £29,385 per year, but many see their loans grow because of the interest – even once they’re repaying – until they are wiped 30 years post-graduation.

“My repayments aren’t keeping up with the interest, so the balance is still going up. My loan is due to be written off in April 2047, if I keep paying at the same rate, I would have paid back roughly £54,000,” Louis explained.

Louis said living abroad makes it harder as the repayment threshold in Germany is lower at £23,510, meaning he is paying more than he would be on the same salary in England.

Louise repays £220 a month but because he lives in Germany, rather than the payment automatically being deducted from his pay, he has to arrange payments himself.

His last payment cost €256.45 by bank transfer each month and the cost depends on the exchange rate and fees.

Louis estimates he would need to pay around £436 a month to clear his student loan balance before 2047, something he says is just not realistic for him.

‘I have had anxiety attacks’

Louis was excited when he first moved to Germany in 2024, as he thought it would ease his financial situation.

“In London, I’d been working around 60 hours a week, seven days a week. I worked five days in an office, then Friday to Sunday as a waiter, just to cover the rent and bills. I thought moving would finally give me some breathing space and time to myself,” he says.

But he says the loan repayments are making it difficult to save.

“The loan repayment could be going towards me saving for a deposit on a flat and finally getting my foot on the housing ladder or putting more into a pension. Honestly, who can say what money will be left in the pot by the time I get to retiring age,” he explained.

Louis shared the mental strain he has been under and admitted having anxiety attacks about whether his pay would last until the end of the month.

His rent costs him €950 a month (roughly £800) and rises by 5 per cent annually with his other bills costing around €160 a month.

In Germany, it is also compulsory to have health insurance which costs him €465 a month as well.

Louis said for the career path he is on now, he would not go to university again and struggles to see how it was worth it.

“I think three years of hands-on industry experience would have left me in a much better position, and without this debt. In my final year, I only had class one hour a week. I honestly think the whole course could have been condensed into one year,” he added.

Louis personally believes education should be free for everyone as it is an investment into future generations and creates a better-educated society.

He said: “If your family can afford the fees and living costs upfront, you can leave university without a loan.

“Someone could do the same degree as me, end up in the same job on the same salary, and still have hundreds of pounds more to live on each month because they don’t have the repayments. To me, that feels like a stealth graduate tax that wealthier families can buy their way out of.”

Living abroad, Louis added he has seen firsthand how much more affordable education can be as his partner paid €300 a semester for university.

He added: “I was 17, nobody at school had taught us about loans or interest and the adults we trusted told us not to worry.

“Some of the repayment rules have changed since then, too, so what I’m paying now isn’t what I was led to expect when signing.”

Student loan holders had hoped that under Andy Burnham’s government, they might be given some breathing space of their own.

However, many were left disappointed after the subject was absent from John Healey’s maiden Budget last month.