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I read the article by Iain Crawford and Nicholas Barr with interest, in places not unmixed with agreement - until I reached the phrase "The Student Loan Company projects up to 490,000 defaulters by the end of the decade". Not so - by a long shot! Extrapolating on the rather solid evidence which we have by now gathered, the cumulative figure is likely to be less than 100,000, representing about 3 per cent of the total number of borrowers to that date. Most of these will in fact repay their loans, given a modicum of encouragement by the company.

ERIC ASH, Student Loans Company Ltd