What were Welsh students’ finances like three years ago?
Jim is an Associate Editor (SUs) at Wonkhe
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No, there hasn’t been some snafu with the Wonkhe website – it really has published the results of a survey into students’ financial situation three years ago.
It’s all the more baffling because the results of England’s equivalent – run by the same company at the same time as a joint project – were published a full year ago.
The sample size, albeit appropriately weighted, is relatively small at 1,972 yet covering all types of HE student domiciled in Wales. It’s also worth bearing in mind a major complexity when looking at both this and the English SIES – both cover students domiciled in that country but studying in England and Wales.
The tempting thing to do subconsciously is to look at many of the figures and draw conclusions about studying in that country – but in this sample we’re looking at students from Wales studying both FT and PT in English providers, Welsh providers and FE providers – and any of the splits by year, subject, level or even characteristics are not provided separately for country of study and provider type.
As such there’s not a huge amount that it can tell us that’s much help now – although there are some interesting comparisons to be drawn between 2014 (the last time the survey was run) and England, given that it was one branch of the same exercise – and sort of signals whether Wales’ more generous (and non-means tested, at least at headline entitlement level) student finance system is (was) working.
In a week where we’ve published data on students at work, my eyes were drawn first to the stats on that – and interestingly, back in 2021/22 at least, there are almost no differences between English and Welsh students on hours worked and amount earned as a result on any of the available splits in term time.
Where there are clear differences are working in the holidays – students from Wales are doing less hours in the breaks than in 2014, and less hours than their English counterparts. They are, in other words, having an actual break.
The figures in the survey often also unhelpfully aggregate in tuition fee loans as a form of income and debt, which in places obscures meaningful comparisons on students’ day to day experience of money handling.
Where there are some extraordinary differences between domiciles is on debt. As I noted in the Scottish piece earlier this week, ministers tend to talk about student loan debt and ignore other forms of it – but here for example are the differences between full-time HE students from each domicile on three key forms of commercial borrowing:
| Borrowing type | Statistic | FT WALES | FT ENGLAND |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial credit | Mean | £694 | £3,989 |
| Commercial credit | Median | £0 | £2,000 |
| Overdraft | Mean | £179 | £983 |
| Overdraft | Median | £0 | £900 |
| Arrears | Mean | £120 | £969 |
| Arrears | Median | £0 | £500 |
It’s not even as if there is some kind of extra parental help going in Wales – far from it, given the median contributions for an FT student from parents or other relatives was £200, while in England the median was £600.
What appears to be happening is that Welsh students are not getting into commercial debt at anything like the level of English counterparts. This is a problematically poorly-understood aspect of student finance systems – but depending upon the debt on graduation and the signals this sends about other struggles, really does matter from a social mobility and student experience point of view.
If we strip out fees and do all the right weighting accordingly, we can look both at a comparison with 2014 having adjusted for inflation, and at a comparison with England as follows. These are medians by domicile for full-time HE students (2014 in 2021 prices)
| Income source | ENGLAND 2014 | ENGLAND 2021 | WALES 2014 | WALES 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main sources of student support | 5,318 | 5,981 | 6,027 | 9,000 |
| Other sources of student support | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Income from paid work | 163 | 739 | 281 | 429 |
| Income from family* | 649 | 500 | 778 | 280 |
| Benefits (and financial support)* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other miscellaneous income* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Estimated total income* | 12,022 | 11,500 | 12,267 | 13,425 |
That climb in income over time from work is partly explained by the minimum wage.
On the spending side, you’ll see at least for the mean averages, living costs were higher in Wales – but just look at the extent to which income was covering those costs in comparison to England:
| Expenditure type | Statistic | Welsh FT | English FT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living costs | Mean | 8,977 | 7,553 |
| Participation costs, excluding fees | Mean | 827 | 877 |
| Estimated total expenditure, excluding fees | Mean | 14,666 | 13,858 |
| Main sources of student support | Mean | 7,951 | 5,644 |
| Other sources of student support | Mean | 2,053 | 1,730 |
| Income from paid work | Mean | 2,822 | 3,129 |
| Income from family* | Mean | 839 | 2,002 |
| Benefits (and financial support)* | Mean | 497 | 299 |
| Other miscellaneous income* | Mean | 173 | 191 |
| Estimated total income* | Mean | 14,335 | 11,500 |
| Difference | Mean | -331 | -2,358 |
There’s a lot more to look at in both the narrative report and in the data tables – not least what appears to be a real success story on part-time funding. The puzzle for policy makers is that what this isn’t all doing is driving higher participation in Wales – in fact quite the reverse.
What I think it does tell us is that student finance policy isn’t all about, and should not only be judged on, the volume of participation. It’s also about a decent quality of life, a liveable student experience and the levels of debt that students get into that can’t be repaid on an income-contingent basis.
It’s a crying shame that Wales has had to let go of its anchor to the minimum wage – but on this (limited) evidence, its higher maintenance rates and lack of a means-test is a policy that has been working.