DON'T panic! That's the message from education bosses to students fearful about their loans.

A new computer system for handling student loans has caused problems for Bury and other LEAs across the country.

The difficulties arose from serious teething troubles with software packages provided to LEAs by the state-run Student Loans Company.

Government assurances have been given that they will be solved in time for undergraduates to get their cheques by the start of the autumn term.

Bury's chief education officer Mr Harold Williams said: "At the moment we cannot produce notification letters for new students or generate cheques for existing ones."

But he added: "We are very relieved to know the software updates will be given us shortly and anticipate no problems."

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