Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to reform higher education funding arrangements or overseas students.

When a borrower moves overseas to live or work, the obligation to repay a student loan within the terms and conditions they signed up to still remains. Where a borrower who has moved overseas chooses either not to engage with the Student Loans Company (SLC) or make repayments where their income is above the relevant threshold for that country, arrears will build up on the student loan account. The borrower will also be in breach of the terms and conditions of their student loan, with the arrears flagged to the SLC debt recovery team.

The SLC continue to target non-compliant overseas borrowers using the application of fraud detection and investigatory techniques. Where this fails, SLC work with a debt collection agency to target borrowers with arrears balances. Further action, including legal action, can also be taken to secure recovery.