On 22nd August 2019, the University and Colleges Admissions Service sent out a general email promotion directing students to for-profit loan company, Future Finance. We the undersigned implore UCAS to publicly commit to cease advertising for-profit loan companies to financially-vulnerable students who look to the service for trustworthy advice.

The email which prompted this petition targeted recipients by name in its subject header, asking “<Jane>, is your Student Finance going to be enough?”. This direct, personal approach masquerades as a helpful prompt and similar language is used throughout the promotion. Loans are misnomered as 'extra funding'. Future Finance describes their service as 'designed around your potential, not your current situation', which between-the-lines suggests a company willing to lend out large amounts without a student's proven record of ability to repay.

This is reflected in Future Finance's figures. The company (as of 23/08/19) asks a total return of £11,867 for a loan of £6,000, almost doubling the initial money offered. In addition to this, it deceptively 'helps' the student by asking only £5 per month whilst in higher-education, maintaining an unrealistic short-term idea of how post-graduate loan repayment will suddenly increase.

UCAS is currently endorsing, in essence, the promotion of extra debt to students. As a group, students are already largely affected by money concerns, as proven in studies such as NUS' 2016 inquiry into the affect of money trouble on students' mental health, where 30% of those quizzed responded that they worry about money 'all the time'. Ironically, the study was sponsored by Future Finance themselves and they used it to promote their extra loans to students. Chief Executive Brian Norton stated "We urgently need the British government and the universities to help inform students about their lending options", advertising his for-profit organisation rather than requesting the government reconsider their overall approach to Student Finance, the centrally-controlled body which provides assistance to most students.

UCAS claims in their small print to hold no responsibility for the businesses they promote, but we disagree. Prompting financially-inexperienced, desperate students to take out loans that masquerade like Student Finance England but don't offer the same protections (such as SFE asking repayments only when the borrower is earning above a certain threshold) is not only an irresponsible, but exploitative business decision from a huge organisation affiliated with hundreds of higher-education services.

If students can't trust UCAS to offer reliable advice, who can they trust?