As students across the country take local action to highlight student hardship, NUS Scotland has released new findings into the gap between the financial expectations of Scotland’s freshers and the harsh realities of the student support system.
NUS Scotland’s report, Mind the Gap, shows that while the majority of this year’s first year students gave thought to their finances prior to Freshers’ Week, three quarters have grossly underestimated their living expenses.
Almost 70 per cent of freshers believe they will take up paid employment if money gets tight, despite rising unemployment and the well-documented problems faced by students seeking work over the summer. Less than a third of first year students expected to use commercial debt such as overdrafts and credit cards.
Liam Burns, NUS Scotland President, said:
“The reality for students starting this year, in the current economic climate, is that many of the traditional safety nets students have relied on have been ripped away. Students have been sold the false hope of adequate student support. Many have underestimated how much they will have to spend to stay in education, wrongly guessed that debt is something they can avoid and think they can turn to alternative sources of cash which we know are rapidly becoming harder to secure.
“It is clear that there is not enough information available to students. But better information for about the realities they are likely to face may well serve to close the door to the very students we want to encourage into education. The Government cannot be blamed for the current funding system, but they certainly will be if we continue to stick our heads in the sand and pretend the problem doesn’t exist.”
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