NUS calls for student loans chief to resign

The National Union of Students (NUS) has called for the chief executive of the Student Loans Company (SLC) to resign following a series of delays this year.

The demand for Ralph Seymour-Jackson to step down comes after the failure of the SLC to process loan applications and pay more than 100,000 students.

Wes Streeting, president of NUS, said: "This year, hundreds of thousands of students have been affected by late payments or lost documents and have endured a miserable start to term.

"SLC bosses have failed to acknowledge the distress they have caused to students and have sought to apportion blame anywhere other than their own doorstep."

Mr Streeting added: "It is time for Ralph Seymour-Jackson to take full responsibility for this shambles and resign immediately."

The SLC, a centralised service of student finance that has replaced local authorities, has blamed the crisis on higher application figures and the inability of students to complete loan applications properly.

The most recent figures released by the SLC indicate that 121,000 students are yet to receive their loans.

Mr Seymour-Jackson issued an apology saying: "We are very sorry that students have experienced difficulties with their funding this year and for the worry that this has caused them and their families."

Liam Burns, president of NUS Scotland, told The Journal: "There is no feeling of remorse from the SLC. We have lost confidence in them."

Mr Burns, replying to the SLC’s reasons for the crisis, said: "The SLC should have foreseen the higher number of applications."

David Lammy is minister for Higher Education within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) which is responsible for the Student Loans Company, ordered an inquiry of the SLC This is to be led by Sir Deian Hopkin, former vice-chancellor of London South Bank University, and Bernadette Kennedy, the director general of Personal Tax for HM Revenue and Customs.

Mr Seymour-Jackson said: "We welcome the inquiry that has been announced to ensure that next year we can deliver the service that students and their parents have every right to expect."

David Willets, shadow minister for higher education, views the failure of the SLC as a result of government incompetence.

Mr Willets told The Journal: "We were led to believe that this year’s problems with student loans were the result of a simple increase in applications but increasingly it looks like the seeds of disaster were sown by the Government months ago.

"The chaos that students are now experiencing is a direct result of a toxic combination of bad Government guidance and shocking operational decisions. Under orders from the universities department, the SLC chose to ignore many thousands of phone calls in a bid to cut costs.

"When the Government then gave them the extra responsibility for processing applications as well as recouping payments, the system completely buckled under the pressure."

Records show that the SLC and the BIS (formerly the Department for Innovations, Universities and Skills) were aware in January of their inability to provide service to high numbers of students.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors on 27 January 2009 Les Campbell, finance director of the SLC, told senior civil servant Michael Hipkins that "there was a significant gap between what the company believed it required and what the government could provide" and warned that "service standard levels may eventually be affected".

Mr Lammy was unavailable for comment.