Glover said it was flawed to allow the debt to compound before the student reached the $50,000 earning threshold and had the capacity to service the loan.
That squeeze has included an ineffective cap on skilled migration which has been bypassed by other routes, the introduction of an £18,600 earning threshold for family spouses and, most controversially of all, curbs on student migration, especially to further education colleges and English language schools and by closing the post-study work route.
Even if, as expected, Mr Clarke raises the £15,000 earning threshold above which student loans have to be repaid under his proposals, it won't cut much ice with his opponents.But Mr Clarke may get a helping hand from an unexpected and unwelcome quarter.
The repayment earning threshold for these loans is currently £16,910.
This isn't about me, though, because I went to university, I got my 2 1, I have my debt and I am above the earning threshold to be deemed enough that I can start paying it back.
Even though about half of ceased beneficiaries earned above the various earnings thresholds, few are able to maintain that level for all of the follow-up period.
Currently, for every £1 claimants earn above the earnings threshold, they lose 41p.
The architect of Hecs, Bruce Chapman, has proposed an alternative whereby the higher interest rate applied only when graduates were earning above the threshold for repayments.
Employees earning below that threshold would qualify to earn one and a half times pay for any time worked beyond 40 hours a week.
Higher-earning graduates would pay back their loans at an interest rate equal to the government's cost of borrowing, while those earning below the threshold would pay no real interest rate.
