Students will quit degrees without cost-of-living help, universities warn

Students will abandon their degree courses unless “immediate action” is taken to offset the cost of living, university leaders have warned.

Vice-chancellors are calling on Britain’s next prime minister to bring back maintenance grants and provide targeted hardship funding for UK students.

Most current support measures are unlikely to help the majority of students because they are mainly targeted at people on means-tested benefits, pensioners and families, analysis by Universities UK found.

New polling by Savanta ComRes found 67% of students in higher education are concerned about managing their living costs this autumn, rising to 85% of students over the age of 30.

Of those, more than half (55%) say this may prevent them from continuing with their studies, including eight in 10 postgraduate taught students.

The Bank of England has warned the UK will tip into recession this year, with inflation already at 10.1%.

Professor Steve West, president of Universities UK and vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England, said ministers “must step forward” with extra cash.

“With inflation reaching record highs and energy bills soaring, (students) need extra support right now, before they decide their living costs are so high that they can’t afford to continue with their studies,” he said.

He added that “it’s time to bring back the maintenance grant and make sure it keeps pace with inflation”, after then-prime minister David Cameron scrapped the payment in 2015.

“Universities are targeting available hardship funding where it is needed the most, but, with the value of maintenance loans falling to its lowest level in seven years, this will not be enough for many,” said Prof West.

“We need immediate action from the new Cabinet to help students through the difficult winter ahead.”

Universities UK, which represents 140 campus bosses across Britain, claimed the freeze on £9,250 annual tuition fees in England means they are “already operating with a severely stretched funding base” which limits how much they can help.

But overseas students, who account for a fifth of places at the leading Russell Group universities this year, pay far higher fees – often in excess of £20,000.

In response, the University and College Union (UCU) hit out at vice-chancellors’ remuneration, which ranged between £256,000 and £589,000 in 2020-21 according to latest accounts, and threatened more strikes without cost of living help.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said: “It is not enough for vice-chancellors to merely call on the Government for more funding whilst pretending to be powerless.

“Universities are raking in record income, but that money is not being spent on supporting staff and students, where it is desperately needed.

“Instead it is being used to boost already overinflated vice-chancellor salaries and being wasted on vanity projects.”

The Savanta ComRes poll of 1,050 students currently in higher education, carried out in July and commissioned by Universities UK, saw three-quarters agree that the cost of living is negatively affecting their mental health.

Students cited utilities and energy bills as their chief concern, with 64% worried about those costs, followed by rent or accommodation, and food.

Half said they would go out less with friends and family this autumn.