In fairness, if student88 only needs £14,000 to complete whatever he needs to complete, then I don't think that is unreasonable.
The APR is likely to be around 7.5% (HSBC) for fixed rate money, which over 60 months would be just shy of £300 per month. This is what I would call reasonable "Ford Focus" borrowing, and even in if it is necessary to carry the loan doing another job, that is well within the bounds of realism. A point that probably wasn't lost on the lender either.
Compare this to the fact that many people here are looking at loans where £14,000 wouldn't cover the annual repayment schedule over a ten year term. Not only that, but even those eye watering figures only hold true with repayment rates of 3% variable. A figure that will soon be a rapidly receeding memory.
Whatever funding anybody is contemplating, they need to be able to answer this one question. If interest rates double and I positively fail to find employement based on the necessity for this loan, can I or my guarantor realistically service the repayment schedule, or effectively write the loan off?
If the answer is no, then don't even consider it. In truth, these days the lender is also likely to be asking the same question, so the decision may be a default one in any case.