The request came just a few weeks after Greece was granted an extension to its own bailout-repayment period.

WSJ: No Easy Passage for Ireland and Portugal

The repayment period for the loan is short four years after graduation, with the first instalment due within six months, on average, of leaving university.

ECONOMIST: Students are struggling to cover their loans

To get over the hump, dealers are cutting margins while finance companies are lengthening the usual three-year repayment period to seven and even 10 years.

CNN: INDIA'S CAR WARS

That can include extended repayment, which stretches out the repayment period while lowering their monthly bill, or income-based repayment where borrowers repay their loans based on their income rather than how much they owe.

WSJ: Weighing Merits of Loan Deferments Today to Keep Defaults Away

By contrast, re-mortgaging a home simply means to take out a new loan equal to what is currently owed, but usually at a different interest rate and a different period of repayment.

FORBES: Use These 8 Loans To Pay For College

Although the loans themselves are given on concessionary terms (fair interest rates, a few years' grace period before repayment and maturities that stretch into the decades), that does not reduce worries over how the government is using - or misusing - the funds.

CNN: ACCOUNTING FOR PAST SINS

The main effect would be to spread students' repayment of debt over an even longer period typically 20 years, rather than the ten years likely under the Dearing proposals.

ECONOMIST: Universities

The full repayment would be expected to be made during that probation period.

BBC: Stephen Baldwin

Although most projects are expected to repay the loan in full within a three year period, the Welsh government is "flexible" in terms of the repayment.

BBC: Finance Committee