A report out early next month says that around 40% of student loans will never get repaid.
A study for the Institute for Public Policy Research goes against popular ministerial thinking that it's only one-third of loans for students which will never be recouped, mainly because the study thinks 40% of the recipients of those loans won't ever start earning the necessary £21,000 a year to set off the repayment mechanism.
And even if they do find themselves earning £21,000.01+ plus each year, there's only thirty of those years before those debts are written off completely.
Which means a large chunk of taxpayer money will disappear into uni coffers and on living expenses ... never to be seen again.
However, there are plans afoot to minimise that loss: the report suggests students should live at home and attend their local university, as opposed to travelling across the country for the course they know that suits them best.
And as a sweetener, the report recommends home-based students should only be charged a maximum annual tuition fee of £5,000, as opposed to the current maximum of £9,000 a year.
And the report says the government could save £10,000 per student this way.
But it's not all about the government, really - even though it's our tax money funding all those degree studies.
Look at it this way: what guarantee is there that the course that suits any student best is going to be within daily commuting distance from the family home?
And what kind of introduction does the home-based student get to real life - away from beneath the parental wing?
For all its faults, university does offer a kind of buffer between home life and independence, giving young people the chance to make their own mistakes in an environment that's somewhat more forgiving than both home life and real life and its harsh realities.
However, rolling back after a night out and straight into the parental kitchen at 4am, to ransack the family fridge with the help of everyone you've brought back with you, isn't going to do much for existing domestic dynamics.
Maybe this five-grand-a-year idea is designed to encourage parents to start saving up right now - so their future uni student offspring really can go out and experience university life on the other side of the country ... ensuring parents a full night's sleep back at the family home ... and a full fridge the following morning.
Just a thought …
