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" George Osbourne announced yesterday that new \u00A310,000 loans will be introduced for young students wanting to do a masters after their degree.  Those wanting to pursue a masters will be able to apply for financial support from the 2016/17 academic year onwards, the chancellor confirmed in his Autumn statement after Nick Clegg&amp;#039;s hints during a Q&amp;amp;amp;A last week.  It&amp;#039;s estimated that the new loans, hailed as &amp;quot;revolutionary&amp;quot; by Osbourne, would encourage an additional 10,000 students to pursue further education, and will benefit an estimated 40,000 students in total. &amp;quot;Until now there has been almost no financial support available, and the upfront costs of postgraduate degrees deter bright students from poorer backgrounds,&amp;quot; said the chancellor during his statement, before adding &amp;quot;In almost all the reports one reads on social mobility . . . this has been identified as a barrier to entry for people from low income backgrounds into the professions. It&amp;#039;s a really important step forward.&amp;quot; Anything that makes education available to students from ALL backgrounds is music to our ears at Cosmo on Campus HQ, but the new announcement hasn&amp;#039;t been without its critics... The UCU lecturers&amp;#039; union said it was a positive move, but &amp;quot;more radical ideas were needed&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s positive that the government has moved to address the current crisis in postgraduate funding, but encouraging people to accrue more debt is not the best way to attract the best and brightest into further study,&amp;quot; said UCU leader Sally Hunt. Where do you stand? Happy to have a better chance at affording a masters, or annoyed about yet more debt for students? Tweet us your thoughts @CosmoOnCampus "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/worklife/campus/news/a31687/new-student-loans-masters/>