NUS has published new survey data which reveals the impact of work on university students’ lives and studies.

With a cost-of-living crisis continuing to bite and soaring inflation increasing prices and rents, more students than ever are being forced to take on paid job alongside their studies. For a sizeable percentage this is having a negative impact on their studies and lives. 

A National Union of Students (NUS) survey of more than 3,500 students has revealed the debilitating impact the cost of travel has on many students. 

• 20% have missed classes due to travel costs. 
• 35% have cut down on extracurricular activities; 35% have missed seeing family and 32% have skipped a meal due to travel costs. 

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Students has published its report on the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis on students.

Since launching the inquiry in January, the APPG has heard from more than 70 students' unions and over 800 students as part of its inquiry.

The UK Government has announced £15 million to support students with the cost of living, as well as a 2.8% increase to the maintenance package for students in England for 2023/24.

Responding, Chloe Field, NUS Vice President Higher Education, said:

“The government has finally recognised that the cost-of-living crisis is leaving our student communities on the brink, and that existing support has failed to reach them. That we have got here at all is down to the hard work and relentless campaigning of the student movement over the past six months.

“We welcome this investment of £15 million into university hardship funds. It’s vital that these funds are made accessible to as many students as soon as possible. Ultimately, hardship funds are a quick fix to a long-term problem which has come to a head in the cost-of-living crisis.

"The government must go further to protect students in the long term, by increasing the value of the maintenance package, implementing a rent freeze and further controls on spiralling student rent, reducing transport costs and increasing the minimum wage for apprentices and young people.

"The 2.8% increase in the maintenance loan for 2023/24 is woefully inadequate and will leave students over £1,500 worse off than they would have been if student support was tied to inflation. More than a quarter of students are living on less than £50 a month after rent and bills. If maintenance support continues to lag behind inflation, the number of students in poverty is only going to increase."

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Maintenance support should be inflation-proofed and rent controls should be implemented to support students with the cost of living, according to policy proposals made by the National Union of Students (NUS).

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A third of students are living on less than £50 a month after paying rent and bills, as the cost of living continues to soar. New research by the National Union of Students (NUS) has found that 96% are cutting back as a result of the crisis.

Commenting on the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ research which reveals that student living cost support has fallen to a historic low, NUS UK President Larissa Kennedy said: 

"We're in a student cost of living crisis, which is pushing us to the brink. 

"We’re hearing from students who are working 3 jobs to make ends meet, who can’t even afford to travel to their university library, and who are cutting back on cooking food due to spiralling energy costs. 

"Our research has shown that thousands more are relying on foodbanks and buy now, pay later loans from companies like Klarna.  

"Rather than pressing ahead with plans which seek to gatekeep education from marginalised communities and will cost current students and graduates £35 billion over the next five years. The Government needs to listen to students, unfreeze the parental earnings threshold and dramatically increase the level of maintenance support on offer for all students.  

"Students aren't cash cows. We are at breaking point, and we're desperate for something radically different".