I think it’d be a tough sell, to try to convince students to take a Monzo account without an interest free overdraft. I certainly wouldn’t blame any students who went for the legacy bank option.
But hopefully either Monzo can make the accounts work alongside a legacy bank’s student account (in theory, PSD2 should help with this) or come up with a more suitable product.
You’re 100% right about the fact that being stuck with an overdraft & a legacy bank isn’t fun!