03 July 2019 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
There have been a couple of important DfE releases this week. Firstly, the latest Student Loan forecasts put some figures on the expected dip in the 18-20 year old demographic, before growth resumes strongly from 2021/22 onwards. The forecasts also tracked an increase in the RAB charge, which has increased from 45% to 47% for 2018/19. Thanks to last year’s ONS decision on the treatment of student loans, this will mean an increase to the government deficit from Autumn this year – it now has direct political consequences.
Secondly, the latest LEO data on graduate outcomes and earnings has been published. It’s a quite baffling range of data that demonstrates, among many other things, the wide range of outcomes for students, even studying the same subjects. Wonkhe’s David Kernohan takes a look at the latest edition and highlights some of the trends, even if there are too many assumptions to draw any serious conclusions.
