The new normal for most students consists of worrying about money 24/7, spending more time at work than in lectures, and getting into debt just to be able to afford to eat.
The cost of living crisis continues to ruin the lives of students. Just during my 2 years of being a student at university I saw a significant increase in the costs of everything from rent to doing a food shop.
An already inadequate maintenance system for students has failed to keep up with these cost increases (or more accurately the government has failed).
This has resulted in a real terms cut to maintenance support of 11 per cent over the last three years, and students have been left to navigate this by themselves.
Living in London costs more than living outside of London, so students in London get extra maintenance support to reflect this. Makes sense right?
But towns and cities across the rest of the country are treated exactly the same by the maintenance system. You don’t have to go far to know that this is a problem, whether that’s from hard data like the £5,316 difference in average annual rents between Bath and Sheffield or just from speaking to friends in different uni cities.
It’s unfair to expect students coming from the same financial background, and receiving the same maintenance support as others, to find an extra £5,000 just to cover rent.
Something isn’t right – but it seems that the regional problems around cost of living and student finance have been able to hide from scrutiny for too long, and because of it students have suffered.
Hard numbers real lives
The problems around the maintenance loan system are not just about the maths, they have a serious negative impact on the lives of students.
Students are constantly worried about increasing living costs, and are generally less happy than the rest of the adult population.
Go to any university and you’ll struggle to find a student who isn’t worried about the cost of living and their own finances. You’ll also struggle to find students who don’t have to take up some form of part time work to cover costs – some with serious impacts on their health.
Now that part time work has become a normal part of student life it’s easy to forget that being a full time student we’re supposed to be able to dedicate a significant amount of our time to studying. The reality now is that students are having to balance a full time degree with part-time work (or even full time work for some).
No wonder student mental health and wellbeing is so poor. The increased cost of living and lack of financial support results in poor student wellbeing, so students try to solve this by taking up part time work which results in time poverty and poor student wellbeing. Students are essentially screwed whatever they do, but changes to the maintenance support system could go a long way to fix this.
Time for change
Recently myself and sabbatical officers from across the country have put these concerns to the government in an open letter to the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, also signed by university vice-chancellors and Members of Parliament.
We are calling for two changes to the maintenance system that would significantly ease the financial pressures on students:
- To make a long term commitment to tie maintenance support to inflation so that students are never again put at a financial disadvantage and are supported through periods of rising costs.
- That the criteria for determining maintenance support distribution should include regional disparities in living costs. This would better reflect the true cost of being a student, enabling all students to choose their place of study regardless of their background, though this should not come at the expense of students in less expensive locations.
Our hope is that we can start a real conversation around how students can be financially supported in a way that actually works.
When issues like this are severely affecting almost all students, we cannot just sit back and accept them. The government will continue to ignore the needs of students if students and those representing students do not make their needs heard.
