Students loan company urged to improve

by Katarzyna Janiak

The Student Loans Company have been forced to apologise to customers for mishandling applications last year, after being warned by the National Audit Office (NAO) to improve their services.

The next academic year is looking to be even more challenging for the SLC according to the NAO report, as finance applications are forecast to rise by 23 per cent.

This follows on from last year's sharp increase of loan requests, which soared to over 34,000 new applications from students.

A recent UCAS report predicted that more than one million students may finance their education with a loan in the academic year of 2010/11.

SLC chief executive, Ralph Seymour-Jackson said: “We deeply regret the problems that students experienced last year.

“This was the first year of a three-year process to centralise student finance in England and I would like to reassure students and parents that lessons have been learned.”

Rebecca Wilson, first year student at the Royal Holloway University said: “I had to send three applications. They didn’t receive my on-line application, so I send the one on paper. Then they put me up for the wrong university so I had to send a third one because they said it will be quicker this way.”

Lessons learned

Significant changes have been made by SLC following their failure last year, when many students suffered because their documents were lost or wrongly processed, resulting in many not receiving their loans on time.

Seymour-Jackson promises improvement in the processing of the rising numbers of applications: “Student Finance England is dedicated to ensuring that students receive an improved service this year.

“We welcome the additional insight from the NAO report, fully accept all the recommendations and indeed have already made several significant changes to our operations.” 

Among the changes mentioned by Seymour-Jackson is the increase in the number of staff, better training and some changes to the process, such as the introduction of online validation of identity.

They are also attempting to reach students directly this year, by attending UCAS conferences throughout the UK to explain the application process.

The SLC are encouraging students to send their applications by the end of June, for the guarantee that funds will be released at the start of each terms.