Students outraged as NatWest cancels vital post-grad loan
Related images
Panic-stricken students have expressed outrage at NatWest Bank’s shock decision to withdraw its Professional Trainee Loan Scheme, leaving aspiring lawyers with very limited options for self-funding their compulsory post-graduate courses..
Both the College of Law (CoL) and BPP Law School have previously offered tailored loans from the high street lender for full or part-time students studying the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), Legal Practice Course (LPC) or Bar Professional Training Course.
Charlotte Ryves, a law student and PR officer for Nottingham Trent University’s student law society, is struggling to find funding for her LPC and said: “It has made me extremely worried because I can’t afford to self-fund,”
“I think this is going to have a really big impact on the divide between rich and poor. There is already a struggle for poorer students to pursue this career and this is just going to make it harder.”
NatWest offered a competitive loan of up to £25,000 to would-be lawyers with an attractive low interest rate. Elsewhere, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns NatWest, is also cancelling its loan products for students, while Lloyds TSB withdrew its professional studies loan over a year a go.
Of the few funding options remaining are Government subsidised Career Development Loans. However, these are not available for GDL students and only offer up to £10,000, of which only 80 per cent is allowed to be used for course fees and the rest for living costs.
Carol Spaderna, who is due to start her LPC at Aberystwyth University this year, said: “For a bank to cut the loan like this is terribly short-sighted. Eventually people like us - those entering into the professions such as medicine and law, will contribute in some way in the future to society.”
In agreement, another student said: “All three of our political parties agree that Britain needs to remain an educated country; so with the recent decision on tuition fees hanging heavily over the heads of many students beginning at undergrad level, something needs to be done to assure them that a good professional education has not now been placed way beyond reach.”
The news arrived as further hikes in legal course fees were announced by the law school giants, with CoL and BPP revealing LPC charges of £12,500 and £12,900 respectively, and Kaplan Law School revealing a LPC cost of £12,295, as reported by Lawyer2B.com last week.
BPP chief executive Peter Crisp said: “We’re currently looking at other loan options and financial providers for our future LPC and GDL students, following notification from NatWest Bank of its decision regarding the provision of professional loans. Our website has been updated to reflect the change, and we will obviously be announcing any arrangements once finalised.”
The CoL, meanwhile, said in a statement that it is in the process of looking at funding options by providing guidance on alternative sources of funding.
“We are also providing guidance and support to help those students hoping to join the NatWest scheme before application stop being accredited in April.”
Elsewhere, a Kaplan spokesperson said in response to the cut: “We have considered this and come to the conclusion that there are other routes to the loans for law students without getting directly involved ourselves.Obviously, we offer a range of payment options from monthly to instalments.”
Meanwhile, the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) said in statement: “The JLD is disappointed to see Natwest withdraw its professional loan for law students. Funding options are becoming increasingly limited for the majority of students who have not managed to secure a training contract which provides for payment of LPC fees. Once again, the legal profession risks being seen as one of the worst industries for social mobility.“
View results 10 per page | 20 per page
Readers' comments (14)
Jennifer Goodfellow | 15-Feb-2011 3:37 pm
Having taken out a Natwest loan to fund my GDL I know how difficult it can be to find alternative funding for law school.
Self-funding law school is incredibly difficult for students from low income families, such as myself. If it were not for the Career Development Loan I would have had to give up on pursuing a legal career. It saddens me to think that other's from a similar background simply wont have the opportunity to study the GDL or LPC becuase of this.
There will be a lot of bright and highly capable students who suddenly find themselves completely unable to access a legal career.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Rebecca Akrofie | 16-Feb-2011 12:03 pm
As an A-Level student who was seeking to do the GDL after a History degree, this has seriously made me re-consider my career choice as a solicitor. Firm sponsored GDL/LPC's are rare and this kind of loan would ahve helped immensely.
I'm now considering whether to go the very long route and do an 18 month GDL instead, where the course fees are lower and try and find work full time. I have not even embarked on a dgree yet, but newws such as this has really eaten into my aspirations.
This will certainly widen the gap between rich and poor. It's quit obvious who can afford these high fees and who will need the funding, which we now hear is being cut.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 17-Feb-2011 11:47 am
There are too many people studying for the LPC. Many do not have the right skills to succeed in a legal career . Perhaps Natwest have realised that anyone of any ability can study for the course with little prospect of a legal career and therefore poorer chances of repyaing. In my humble opinion, it is a sound commerical decision.
Many firms be it the large commerical ones to the smaller ones offer some assistance with fees. This ranges from payment of fees and a grant, to a loan from your sponsoring firm to be either repaid or cleared after qualification. Those who have all the skills, academic ability and drive to succeed should not be worried.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 17-Feb-2011 6:26 pm
Re: Anonymous post above, whilst I agree with your point regarding there being too few training contracts compared to LPC graduates, I utterly disagree that 'those who have the skills, academic ability and drive to succeed should not be worried'.
I am due to begin the LPC in 2011. I have a Training Contract with a large commercial law firm in London. They will pay my course fees and give me a sizeable grant .
That said, the grant will not cover cost of rent for 12 months in London, not metion amenities. I will commit all of my savings to the LPC and will have a part time job whilst studying. Even with that funding, I was reliant on borrowing a sum of money from the Natwest scheme.
I appreciate that Natwest may not wish to lend to students without a TC (harsh I know, but money is tight and there is no guarantee of securing a TC by the end of the LPC). However, why have they cut the funding for students with a TC? It was a loan which attacted a huge number of future lawyers to their bank and with students with training contracts they had at least two years of guaranteed re-payments during their training contract. Abandoning the loan scheme completely and losing those future clients does not make a huge amout of commercial sense.
It's a decision which further enhances the view of law as a career only for those lucky enough to have financial help from their parents. Furthermore, it leaves students who wished to train with firms who do not offer grants/ course fees, etc (ie, High Street, Human Rights, Criminal, Family, etc) in a real pickle.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 21-Feb-2011 0:10 am
I was refused an RBS law student loan on the grounds I did not have a TC when I started my GDL. But the £5,000 offered for students taking the GDL and £10,000 for the LPC would not have been enough anyway.
I got a partial scholarship, took out an RBS graduate loan, and worked (a lot more than BPP recommended I should work during a full time GDL and LPC). Funding has always been an issue. But there are ways of doing it.
But I too disagree with the statement that "those who have all the skills, academic ability and drive to succeed should not be worried." I was good enough to get a BPP scholarship, a Distinction on my LPC..etc - but struggled with finance the whole way through.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 23-Feb-2011 3:06 pm
As an LLB student, this was really very troubling to me. I don't want to work in the City, and not many regional firms can afford to sponsor LPC's, let alone TC's. As a result I'll probably have to delay my LPC by a few years and self-fund as much as possible with a Career Development Loan supplementing. This clearly isn't an ideal situation; I'm from a low-income family and Mum and Dad can't afford to fund me at all.
The loans offered by the banks were a lifeline to students like me - as a result firms are likely to lose out on talented students and diversity is likely to reduce dramatically too. In the face of a recession, with funding opportunities scarce, young would-be-lawyers will be forced out of the profession.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 24-Mar-2011 3:04 pm
Natworst are a bunch of idiots. They would not give me a loan to do the GDL / LPC as I didn't have a Bachelors degree. I must hasten to add that I do have a Masters degree (from a top 10 uni) as well as 18 years work experience. Needless to say, as they were acting like jobsworths and couldn't comprehend that post-graduate study is at a higher level than undergrad study, I closed my account down with them.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 28-Mar-2011 10:33 pm
The sad truth is that in this day and age many LPC students will not get a training contract.
There are far too many LPC students.
Why should Natwest lend students money when the chances of getting a job are low?
At the end of the day Natwest has realised that the chances of the loan being repaid are low because there are insufficient jobs.
Those of you that wish to take the risk and self-fund, save up and pay for it yourself!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
AMANDA | 7-Apr-2011 3:39 pm
All this talk about too many LPC students and too few training contracts really annoy me. Yes that may be the reality but why should it be a stumbling block? Why not say there are no jobs so kids, dont bother to go to university, too many graduates too little jobs?
We live in such a negative society, too many women not enough men so dont aspire too marry?
What natwest should have done is to set the criteria for being granted a loan higher, ie for students who have 2.1, that gives students a reason to work harder knowing that they have to meet certain educational commitments to go all the way.
Besides they may be too many LPC students but how many of them are credible? I firmly believe that if you work hard, have good grades, a sound academic record and a good personality (its not only about education) you have a very good chance of getting a training contract.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 18-May-2011 1:04 am
They have also withdrawn it for medics! People are talking about job prospects??? As medic, I can't get much more employable. Absolute joke.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment