Chris,
I am not saying anything at all about my opinion of the relative ranking or quality of either school and certainly not that one is better than the other. I am merely saying that HSBC offers different terms and conditions to students of each. I actually think it is pretty poor on HSBC's part to do so. Both are leading schools that get the job done well, so I should think their students are pretty evenly matched as far as risk to the bank goes. All I can reason out of these differences is that the bespoke PSLs for each school are not based on decisions taken at a centralized level of management, rather more locally.
The difference in interest rates offered by HSBC Oxford is .75% more for an unsecured loan and there are fewer upfront fees for the unsecured loan, so the increased cost due to higher interest is mitigated by about £350 to £400 less in fees. Since they only offer up to £25K unsecured and this loan has a shorter repayment period, the final cost is not as bad as one might think it will be. I do think the secured option is less expensive overall, but those who don't have security to offer and don't need a huge loan might find this option quite tolerable.
Getoffmycloud's comment is a bit judgmental and one could even say touchy. It's also off topic since this thread is not about the modular vs. integrated debate. Funny thing is that the guy who started the thread is training modular and I'm not sure Chris even said what route he is taking. This is simply a discussion of HSBC loans, not one about what various posters plan to do with the proceeds of the loan or why they made those choices. It's a bit rude to make people feel defensive about what is for each wannabe a very personal and difficult decision, especially when they didn't ask for such opinions, so it might be more genial and constructive to limit the thread to the exchange of factual, on topic information.