Press Coverage and Media Centre
National Press
Online Press
- BBC News Online.
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"Tom Weaver, Ash Kumar and Paul Hawkins have written an e-book - The Student Finance Vigilante - in an attempt to provide students with practical help in managing their money....."
- Guardian Unlimited Money.
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"[Students] are underestimating the time it will take them to get out of the red and into the black by an average of three years, although some are out by as much as a decade, according to the Student Finance Vigilante Debt Perceptions Survey 2004......."
- ThisisLondon.
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"A study by university financial guide The Student Finance Vigilante found 58% of students received no personal finance education at school, with 63% not keeping a budget or actively managing their finances when at university......"
- Guardian Unlimited Money.
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"A trio of entrepreneurial graduates from Southampton and Nottingham universities are set to launch what they claim is a revolutionary new tool to cut thousands of pounds off a student's debt over the course of a degree.
With student debt escalating at a frightening rate - up by 500% in the last decade from £2,212 in 1994 to £12,069 today, according to Barclays - the new e-book will be available to freshers to download to their computers from the end of September......"
- Guardian Unlimited Education.
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"Many students underestimate the cost of graduation. The period between finishing your last exams and leaving university is like freshers week, part two. You'll have lots of free time on your hands... and then there's the graduation ball, says Tom Weaver, a recent graduate and co-author of e-book The Student Finance Vigilante ."
- Press Association.
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"The guide aims to help students reduce the amount of debt they graduate with by offering advice on budgeting and student discounts, as well as providing tools to help them keep track of how much they are spending and calculate how much they will owe when they start work based on their current expenditure...."
Media Centre
Press releases
- Press Release One (19th August 2004) : Read Online | Download
- Press Release Two (19th October 2004) : Read Online | Download
- Press Release Three (29th January 2005) : Read Online | Download
Journalist resources
- Download The Student Finance Vigilante Debt Perceptions Report 2004
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Aware of the impact of the soaring levels of student debt on graduates for years after leaving university, the authors of The Student Finance Vigilante undertook a study of the perceptions that current students have of both their expected levels of debt upon graduation and the length of time they expect it to take to clear these debts.
The key hypothesis was that the majority of students underestimate both the length of this debt payback period and the total amount they will have repaid, including all interest.
Press Release One
19th August 2004
For Immediate Release
The Student Finance Vigilante launched to cut £1 billion* from soaring student debt
New Guide Tackles 500% Increase Of Debt Mountain
Student debt has risen 500% in just a decade, from a 1994 average of just £2,212 to a crippling £12,069 in 2004 . Hundreds of thousands of students across the UK are experiencing massive rises in their own debt mountains each year and nothing has been done to curve this worrying and debilitating trend – until now.
A group of entrepreneurial recent graduates from Southampton and Nottingham Universities have launched 'The Student Finance Vigilante' &ndash a web-based one stop shop to finding the answers to the menace which is student debt. This new weapon in the fight against debt will be launched in the form of a new guide that aims to cut thousands of pounds off an individual's student debt over the course of their degree by improving their financial habits and knowledge and helping them to avoid the perils and pitfalls of finance.
The guide, in the form of an e-book, brings together for the first time both the information and the tools that students need to actively manage and plan their finances.
Tom Weaver, co-author of the guide, said, "It is so easy for a student to find themselves in serious debt and nobody seems to be doing anything to address this disturbing trend. The reality is that with average debt now at £12,000 and climbing, today's students are likely to still be paying off their student debts into their 30's or even longer."
The authors are determined to ensure that this year's Freshers are armed with a fighting chance. Weaver added, "Eighteen year-olds with no personal finance schooling are being thrown into an environment with increasing student fees and pressure to spend from peers and advertisers alike. They need this information, or they face five figure debts that are continuously growing. It is not just this year's new students; we can help returning students as it is never too late to take control of your finances and become Student Finance Vigilantes."
The Student Finance Vigilante not only demonstrates the importance of being in control of your finances at university, and the implications of getting it wrong, but also provides practical advice on loans, banking, income and expenditure as well as providing an integrated tool for budgeting and tracking actual spending. It also simulates figures that a high or low spender may spend at university so that students are given a real guide of what spending patterns to aim for.
Students and parents alike can access the e-book from the website from the 24th September 2004 - www.studentfinancevigilante.co.uk
...ends...
For further information, please contact:
Tom Weaver, Co-AuthorEmail: tom dot weaver at studentfinancevigilante dot co dot uk
Mobile: 0771 4463399
NB: Authors are available for interview on all issues of student debt. Please contact Tom Weaver for more details.
* £1 billion - One million students saving a minimum of £1,000 per academic year by becoming Student Finance Vigilantes (this is the minimum we would expect a student to save per year, however the opportunities exist to save five figure sums over the course of their degree).
The Student Vigilante Team
Recent graduates Tom Weaver, Ash Kumar and Paul Hawkins watched as their friends graduated from university in serious debt, and realised students lacked both the knowledge and desire to deal with their debt problems. Tom Weaver began to advise his close friends on restructuring their debts and in doing so started to formulate key points for managing personal finance that would have been extremely beneficial through university. The three, along with other professional input, have consolidated this learning into The Student Finance Vigilante to help today's students gain the same understanding.
As former executives of the global student-run charity AIESEC, they utilised their network of student and graduate contacts to gain an insight into current student spending and graduate debt. Tom is currently an educational consultant for Bryanston Square and Director of Adaption Finance, his own business established with Ash and Paul. Ash is a consultant at a leading consultancy firm and provides a finance background to the team. Paul is a project manager at a multinational engineering firm and has experience in student communications.
Press Release Two
19th October 2004
For Immediate Release
51% of students underestimate the time taken to pay off their debts
As the final freshers weeks draw to a close across the country, The Student Finance Vigilante Debt Perceptions Survey 2004 reveals that over half of students at university today are underestimating the time it will take to pay off their debts upon graduation by more than three years.
The research, carried out by the authors of e-book The Student Finance Vigilante, compares the gap between the estimations of students as to how long it will take to pay back their debts and the output of mathematical calculations based on their own input.
Having studied the levels of debt that students are facing on graduation (average of £12,069 – source: Barclays) they looked at how long it would take the average student to pay this back. Author Tom Weaver said, "We wondered how many students were aware of the length of time it would take to pay off their debts. The mathematics are fairly simple once you understand them – yet it would appear that even based on their own inputs of estimated debts on graduation, starting salaries and rises, a significant number are far off in their own expectations. 7% of respondents were off by over 10 years."
The authors also discovered that whilst students expected to pay off their debts by the age of 28, on average they were calculated to be 31 by the time they were clear of student debt.
The authors suggest that these incorrect expectations of both time and the total amount can be explained by a lack of appreciation of the impact of compound interest, in itself a reflection of a general lack of financial awareness among those leaving school.
The survey went on to discover that 58% of students had received no personal financial education at school, and though some had received some from their parents, 12% had received none at all. Despite the fact that many had, 63% did not keep a budget or actively manage their finances.
Tom Weaver said, "The reality is that most students arrive at university having received little or no formal education in personal finance. There is an immediate need to address this knowledge gap for many students as their lifestyle and spending decisions from their first day will impact their levels of debt for the next ten years or longer. We need students to fight back against this disadvantage and become Student Finance Vigilantes: financial intelligence could make the next decade of their lives very different for them."
The full report is available online in The Student Finance Vigilante Media Centre - www.studentfinancevigilante.co.uk/press
...ends...
For further information, please contact:
Tom WeaverEmail: tom dot weaver at studentfinancevigilante dot co dot uk
Mobile: 0771 4463399
NB: The Student Finance Vigilante Authors are available for interview on all issues of student debt and lifestyle. Please contact Tom Weaver for more details.
- The data in this survey was collected online between 8th and 11th October 2004
- The sample of 129 students was drawn from 16 universities
The Student Vigilante Team
Recent graduates Tom Weaver, Ash Kumar and Paul Hawkins watched as their friends graduated from university in serious debt, and realised students lacked both the knowledge and desire to deal with their debt problems. Tom Weaver began to advise his close friends on restructuring their debts and in doing so started to formulate key points for managing personal finance that would have been extremely beneficial through university. The three, along with other professional input, have consolidated this learning into the e-book The Student Finance Vigilante to help today's students gain the same understanding.
As former executives of the global student-run charity AIESEC, they utilised their network of student and graduate contacts to gain an insight into current student spending and graduate debt. Tom is currently an educational consultant for Bryanston Square and Director of Adaption Finance, his own business established with Ash and Paul. Ash is a consultant at a leading consultancy firm and provides a finance background to the team. Paul is a project manager at a multinational engineering firm and has experience in student communications.
Press Release Three
29th January 2005
For Immediate Release
83% OF STUDENTS DO NOT FIND AVERAGE STUDENT DEBT FIGURES SCARY
Despite average debt figures at £9,744 (source: MORI) and reports that students may owe up to £15,000 after variable tuition fees are introduced (source: NIESR), a recent survey shows that 73% of first year students do not find this a scary figure.
The research, carried out by the authors of popular e-book The Student Finance Vigilante, asked students what numbers were perceived to be “scary” – to the degree that they would fundamentally change their living habits should they think they would graduate with that much debt.
Barclay’s 2004 survey suggesting an average of £12,069 was deemed as “scary” by only 7%. Most remarked that they had accepted they would graduate with this amount of debt when joining university.
When asked their opinions on these debt figures, there was a variety of responses. “I just think (£12,000) is a good thing, as students can get an interest free loan,” wrote one student, perhaps misperceiving the amount a graduate overdraft allows people to take. Another said it “pays for three years of your life, so fair enough”.
In comparison, £15,000 of debt was deemed scary by 17% of the students. “I’ve never seen that much money,” one student remarked, “so to be honest the difference between £12,000 and £15,000 does not mean much in real terms”.
In real terms, however, a difference of £3,000 paid back on a graduate loan of 6.9% could take an extra four years to pay off, explains Tom Weaver, author of The Student Finance Vigilante. “I’ve talked to graduates with salaries as low as £12,000, and many around the £18,000 to £22,000 mark. Most never realised the impact of tax, national insurance, student loan contributions, accommodation and travel to work – certainly in London – on your salary. It means there can little left to help pay off extra debt. If they can only afford £50 a month towards that £3,000, on top of their other debts, that could take four years of their life to pay off, accounting for compound interest”.
When the numbers reached £18,000, however, the balanced tipped and 60% of students found that worrying. “That sounds more realistic,” said one student. “I think many people have a good amount of parental support which brings the average down”. Another noted this was “the same as what he thought his starting salary would be, so it was concerning.”
Tom Weaver concluded that “spending habits and attitude towards debt are as big a factor in student debt as fees. To change those spending habits for the better takes effort and willpower, and if students do not realise the impact of even a small amount of debt on their life after university, it is much more difficult to help.”
...ends...
For further information, please contact:
Tom WeaverEmail: tom dot weaver at studentfinancevigilante dot co dot uk
Mobile: 0771 4463399
NB: The Student Finance Vigilante Authors are available for interview on all issues of student debt and lifestyle. Please contact Tom Weaver for more details.
- The data in this survey was collected online between 15 th December 2004 and 20 th January 2005
- The sample of 150 first year students was drawn from 15 universities
The Student Vigilante Team
Recent graduates Tom Weaver, Ash Kumar and Paul Hawkins watched as their friends graduated from university in serious debt, and realised students lacked both the knowledge and desire to deal with their debt problems. Tom Weaver began to advise his close friends on restructuring their debts and in doing so started to formulate key points for managing personal finance that would have been extremely beneficial through university. The three, along with other professional input, have consolidated this learning into the e-book The Student Finance Vigilante to help today’s students gain the same understanding.
As former executives of the global student-run charity AIESEC, they utilised their network of student and graduate contacts to gain an insight into current student spending and graduate debt. Tom is currently an educational consultant for Bryanston Square and Director of Adaption Finance, his own business established with Ash and Paul, and sits on a higher education think-tank. Ash is a consultant at a leading consultancy firm and provides a finance background to the team. Paul is a project manager at a multinational engineering firm and has experience in student communications.