Um, so it’s been revealed that fake students are taking advantage of the student loan system to obtain millions of pounds. People are applying for student loans, not actually doing the degree, then pocketing the cash. Scammers are even using this strategy with Russell Group unis.
According to the The i Paper, people have used this tactic to apply for £93 million between January 2019 and May 2025. The Student Loans Company (SLC) actually gave £20 million of this out to scammers, and has only managed to get £1.2 million back.
By the way, these numbers only refer to money for maintenance loans. Apparently people also submit fraudulent applications for tuition loans, but it’s much easier for the Student Loans Company to get that money back through the unis.
Some people are even making fraudulent student loan applications to Russell Group unis. Here’s a ranking of how badly different Russell Group unis were impacted by these scams. It’s based on the amount of money requested through fraudulent loan applications to each uni between January 2019 and May 2025, plus how much of that money was actually paid out, according to The i Paper.
Remember, the Russell Group unis with more students are likelier to get more fraudulent applications from scammers. The Russell Group unis vary quite a bit in size – LSE, for instance, is smaller than the others.
20. University of Birmingham – £8,400 requested, £8,400 paid out
19. University of Warwick – £8,814 requested, £2,751 paid out
18. University of Manchester – £9,427 requested
17. University of Nottingham – £9,757 requested
16. University of Southampton – £11,460 requested, £3,782 paid out
15. University of Edinburgh – £12,203 requested, £4,051 paid out
A rare image of the sun shining in Edinburgh
14. Durham University – £16,458 requested, £0 paid out
13. Imperial College London – £16,489 requested, £1,985 paid out
12. London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – £16,873 requested, £339 paid out
11. Newcastle University – £18,597 requested, £15,246 paid out
10. University College London (UCL) – £23,809 requested, £4,200 paid out
9. University of Bristol – £40,443 requested, £5,072 paid out
8. University of Leeds – £41,976 requested, £8,755 paid out
7. University of Sheffield – £47,486 requested, £21,290 paid out
6. Queen Mary University of London – £48,412 requested, £2,517 paid out
(Credit: Brit in Seoul)
5. University of Exeter – £48,705 requested, £3,086 paid out
4. University of Liverpool – £49,413 requested
3. King’s College London – £64,002 requested, £26,592 paid out
2. Cardiff University – £97,685 requested, £3,922 paid out
1. University of York – £162,801 requested, £6,947 paid out
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