When people talk about the cost of university, they usually focus on the tuition fee.

That is understandable. It is the big headline number.

But for many graduates, the more frustrating part comes later. They start work, repayments begin, money leaves their salary, and yet the total they owe barely seems to move. In some cases, it even goes up.

That is one reason student loan interest has been back in the news.

For students on Plan 2 loans, interest is currently charged at between 3.2% and 6.2%, depending on income. Repayments only start once earnings go above the repayment threshold, and from April 2026 that threshold is £29,385. For Plan 5 borrowers, the interest rate is lower at 3.2%, with repayments starting above £25,000 from April 2026.

This is where the confusion starts.

Student loans do not work like a normal bank loan. Repayments are based on what you earn, not on how quickly you clear the balance. So if your repayments are relatively low but interest is still being added, the amount owed may fall very slowly or rise for a period of time.

That can feel frustrating, even for graduates earning decent salaries and repaying consistently.

As Dr Mark Cox, an A&E doctor and co-founder of Orli, puts it:

“I studied medicine for five years and left university with around £63,000 of debt. After eight years working as a doctor, earning a solid salary and consistently repaying, my balance has grown to roughly £73,000.

It was positioned as the normal route, almost inevitable, and I didn’t appreciate how interest or long-term repayments would actually play out.

The way it’s structured and communicated doesn’t match the reality many graduates experience. It feels more like an additional tax than a loan.”

For many graduates, the emotional experience is not “I’m paying off a debt”. It is “money keeps leaving my payslip, but I do not feel any closer to being done”.

Macy-Jane Hewitt, a third-year university student in Exeter, puts it:

“We were very much sold the idea the student loan ‘graduate tax’ model was the more sensible, cost-effective option, and we accepted that framing by default.”

That is part of the issue. Many students and parents understand the headline mechanism, but not necessarily how it plays out over time. The gap between the simple explanation and the lived reality is where a lot of the anxiety sits.

And it is not just the loan structure itself families need to think about.

For some, returning to the UK to study brings another layer of cost and complexity. Students who have lived abroad for extended periods may be classed as international students rather than home students, unless they meet strict residency criteria. That can mean much higher tuition fees and no access to UK student finance. Depending on the course and university, international fees can run into the tens of thousands of pounds a year.

So the real question is not just, “What is the tuition fee?”

It is:

• how will the loan actually work after graduation?

• what are the likely living costs while studying?

• how much support might still be needed from family?

• and, in some cases, will the student even qualify for home fee status?

That does not mean university is not worth it. And it does not mean every graduate will repay more in interest than they borrowed. But it does mean the financial picture is more complicated than many families realise at the point decisions are being made.

This is why it helps to zoom out.

University is not a neat standalone cost that suddenly begins at 18. It is often the final stage of a much longer education cost journey, one that may already have included childcare, school extras, tutoring or school fees. When families only look at the headline tuition fee, they risk missing the wider picture.

Understanding that bigger picture does not solve everything. But it does help people ask better questions, plan more realistically, and avoid a few nasty surprises later.

Sencillo’s whitepaper, The True Cost of Education 2026, looks at the full cost of education from early years to university, including the financial realities families often underestimate until they are living them.