Unite Students’ recently released report on the Unite 2024 Applicant Index highlights that cost-of-living concerns are increasingly impacting student decision-making and choices.
The Unite Applicant Index was launched in 2022 in partnership with HEPI and systematically tracks university applicants’ attitudes each year across domains such as finance, employment, social, wellbeing, community and learning.
This year’s Index indicates that cost of living concerns are impacting student decisions about where they will study and live. Seventeen per cent (17%) of Unite Applicant Index respondents said that the cost of living had influenced their choice of university. A number of students who responded to the Unite survey said they were deliberately avoiding choosing a university in London due to the high cost of living in the capital. Others indicated that they were choosing to study in cities they considered to be more affordable or to live in cheaper areas within a city to cut down costs. Many students said they were focussing on locations in the North of England.
Unite reports that 39% of applicants plan to live in university halls, 9% intend to live in private halls and 23% intend to live at home. Unite notes that the proportion of applicants intending to live at home is slightly lower than the 33% of students intending to live at home according to UCAS End of Cycle Data 2023. Although 42% of applicants indicated living costs as their biggest concern, Unite’s analysis suggests that there does not yet appear to be a significant increase in the number of students choosing to commute to university.
Barclays research into the decision-making of 2,000 prospective students prior to the current academic year similarly found that students were increasingly considering whether to commute to university due to cost-of-living pressures. However, the Barclays survey also found that for those students who do decide to live away from home and live in halls, affordability concerns were likely to influence room preferences – for those planning to live in private halls or their institution’s accommodation almost half (48 per cent) said they were opting for the least expensive option available.
The most recent GSL Index data also indicates some significant shifts in terms of student financial pressures. Traditionally, the number of students reporting they struggle with budgeting has always been higher than the number of students saying they struggle with having enough money to get by. However, this Spring, the number of students saying that they struggle with budgeting dropped, while the number saying that they struggle with having enough money to get by increased by 4% to 36%. Last year, having enough money to get by was in ninth place on the list of top student struggles; however, it moved to fourth place this year.
At the same time, the number of students saying they are struggling to find part-time work has increased by 7%, meaning it is now the second biggest struggle for students after stress and anxiety (it was the 8th biggest last Spring). This suggests that for many students, the impact of the cost-of-living crisis has moved beyond the need to simply budget better to far more serious circumstances and there is a need for more opportunities for students to find part-time work to assist with their living costs.
Interested in learning more?
Global Student Living, in partnership with CUBO, released a report summarising recent trends in the GSL Index data and explores the student accommodation experience of some of the most vulnerable student cohorts, including those who are part of an ethnic minority, students who have a long-term illness, health problem or disability which limits daily activities or work, students who report themselves as neurodivergent, and those identifying within the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.
Download the report here.
