Acumen+giving+you+the+edge

BPP, Investec launch student loan

6 July 2011 | By Laura Manning

  • Print
  • Comments (11)

Related Articles

BPP Law School has thrown a vital lifeline to aspiring lawyers struggling to find funding to pay for their postgraduate studies.

The institution has this week launched a new loan for students to cover fees for the full-time Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC).

The new five-year fixed interest loan rolled out in partnership with Investec will allow would-be lawyers to borrow a maximum of £25,000 to cover all or part of the course fees, plus living expenses of up to 20 per cent of the course cost.

Chief executive and dean of BPP Law School Peter Crisp said: “BPP is committed to supporting students as much as we can, and in addition to our scholarship programme, we are always looking for ways in which we can help train our future lawyers.”

But the ‘Law Loan” as it has been named carries interest fixed at 9.5 per cent or an annual percentage rate of 9.9 per cent making the product much more expensive than many of personal loans on offer from high street lenders as well as HSBC’s dedicated bar loan, which was reinstated by the lender in May 2011 following a review.

HSBC decided to hike the interest rate by a whopping 6 per cent, setting it at 7 per cent above its base rate of 0.5, as revealed by Lawyer2B.com (read more).

Other features of the BPP/Investec loan include an 18-month repayment holiday from the start date of the loan. This could also prove problematic for GDL students who would potentially have to start repaying the loan before completing all of their studies.

The launch of the loan follows NatWest Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland’s decision to withdrawing their dedicated LPC and GDL Professional Trainee Loan Scheme earlier this year, as exclusively reported on Lawyer2B.com (read full story).

See all Related Jobs, Briefings & CPD/Events

Readers' comments (11)

  • lawyer Not2B | 6-Jul-2011 4:25 pm

    9.9% is extortion - not sure how this is going to help with diversity or fair access - this is just another attempt at luring hapless students onto expensive courses without any hope of them every securing a training contract/pupillage.

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • Anonymous | 6-Jul-2011 9:34 pm

    @ lawyer not2B

    students beware, BPP is owned by the same group as the university of phoenix in the US, where students are sold essentially unusual degrees which end up costing anywhere from 2 to 4 times the cost of a normal education degree. BPP is certainly not in the business of educating much less in making sure that students come out before off, but at least heavily indebted...

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • captainlazerz | 7-Jul-2011 8:33 am

    Looks like the College of Law trolls are out in force. BPP Law School is widely recognised as being a decent law school.

    No one is forcing students to take out this loan, it's simply another option.

    Not everyone has parents who can put up the cost of an LPC or BPTC without thinking twice.

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • Johnny Drama | 7-Jul-2011 11:31 am

    Words fail me with BPP. They'll probably dish out these loans to LPC applicants with 2.2 degrees and no chance of getting a TC.

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • IHateBPP | 7-Jul-2011 12:45 pm

    BPP is now a loan shark?

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • anon | 7-Jul-2011 1:23 pm

    Why would anyone be stupid enough to take this loan out at a rate of 9.5%?

    Most banks offer reduced rates for graduate loans, up to £25k, for example HSBC, as pointed out offer 7.5%!

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • Anonymous | 7-Jul-2011 6:19 pm

    Seriously BPP? You have got to be kidding. How about reducing your extortionate fees or offering an interest free loan on the same terms as career development loans. Or... Alternatively, you can just watch other lpc provides reduce their fees (some charge half what you do) and as with the College of Law say bye bye to further staff. If anyone is daft enough to take on this 'loan' you haven't got the commen sense required for law. It's also worth mentioning that you can't become a lawyer of you go bankrupt.

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • Anonymous | 9-Jul-2011 5:54 am

    Couldn't they just reduce their fees? Near enough 10% looks like profiteering given where the base rates are.

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • colm | 11-Jul-2011 8:05 pm

    "BPP Law School has thrown a vital lifeline to aspiring lawyers struggling to find funding to pay for their postgraduate studies."

    Nice to see you just quoting the press release verbatim.

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

  • Anonymous | 23-Jul-2011 4:05 pm

    There may be many other things wrong with this loan but I think the nail in the coffin has got to be that you are doomed to work alongside the LPC as they only provide a typical £2,000 for maintenance for the whole year (that doesn't even cover rent!), and with this you can't even spread your focus over a two year period! Are they setting us up to fail?

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

View results 10 per page | 20 per page

Have your say

Mandatory Required Fields

  • Print
  • Comments (11)

Most popular

Most commented

Most emailed