Its a big loan which has low minimum repayments linked to income. Its STILL a loan though and you have to pay it all back plus a little interest. Whilst you have that debt it will directly restrict that which you might borrow to fund flying training.
Lets say you leave Univeristy only £12k in debt. You graduate job over the next 4 years will loose £3k a year before tax, £4k a year after tax. So lets say you get a job that pays in year 1 22k, year 2 24k, year 3 £26k and year 4 £28k. Thats a median wage of £25k minus £3k loan repayment which is actually £4k a year gross (you have to pay income tax on the money you use to repay the loan).
So really I think you're likely to be on around £21k average gross after student loan repayment to get you debt free ready for flying training and all its costs and loans.
You seriously could equal that by joining a Modern Apprenticeship scheme or similar in house scheme as offered by major employers in hi-tech sectors.
University is very expensive when you consider the debt repayments and loss of earnings. It probably does pay off over the next 10 or 20 years in that profession but as you are planning of changing career anyway then it really doesn't make much sense.
Of course it is quite attractive to be a student for the next three years lying in bed until 10 with some fellow student and living the University lifestyle. But that's a totally different set of considerations.
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