The National Union of Students says the rising cost of higher education means many students will leave college with debts of up to �15,000.

Everything that students have to live on, they have to borrow.

NUS President Mandy Telfer

The government argues that it can no longer afford to give generous grants for living expenses or tuition fees, because of the huge increase in students going on to higher education.

Most students no longer get any form of grant. They have to make ends meet by borrowing at nominal rates from the student loan company - and by running up bank overdrafts which cost them much more.

This morning, Breakfast interviewed Mandy Telford, who's the president of the National Union of Students.

"The old student grant has been abolished entirely," she told us. "Everything that students have to live on, they have to borrow."

When students pay their tuition fees, they're entitled to a low-interest student loan of �4,000. But many find they're being offered bank overdrafts too, at much higher rates of interest.

click here to watch Breakfast's interview in full with Mandy Telford of the NUS

We want to hear your views: has the government got it wrong on student loans? Or did the old system of student grants mean that lower earners ended up subsidising the children of the middle classes?