Young people are giving up on higher education due to a lack of rent support, with some even relying on lecturers for help.
Universities are being urged to provide rent guarantor services for students who have been in care or are estranged from their parents, with warnings that the current lack of support is forcing young people to quit.
Students without someone to share responsibility for their rent face a harrowing struggle to secure accommodation, which can disrupt or entirely derail their studies and leave them in precarious housing situations – in many cases at risk of homelessness.
While some students without a guarantor will be asked to pay six or 12 months’ rent in advance, potentially forcing them to drop out of university, The Independent has also been told of instances in which lecturers have stepped in to act as a guarantor at the request of their desperate students.
