I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism

with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, today we're talking about the ins and outs of student finance.

We'll be finding out what the rules are around student loans

and how to avoid falling foul of them.

Whatever your question, you can call us now on 0-3-700-100-444.

Geographic charges from landlines and mobiles apply. You can also email us. We're at

Moneybox at BBC.Bocq or you can tweet at Moneybox. Let's go straight to Alison now. Alison, what's

your question? Hi, yeah, I've got two children, one 12 and 114.

We've been saving in child trust funds for them since they were babies.

And basically, my original thinking was that we would use that money to go towards their tuition fees and maintenance rather than them being saddled with lots of debt while through the student loan process.

But I'm not sure that's the right way forward.

And I just want to get some advice really on what's the best thing to do for them

and should I use it for maintenance really while they're at university.

Okay, it's a good question.

Before we go into the specifics, I just want to go over how student loans work.

Tom Alligam is from the website Save the Student, which gives money tips and guidance and is in the studio with me.

Tom, parents like Alison and her husband often worry about their children getting saddled with large debts when they go to university.

Are they right to?

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