The cost of living is the topic at the top of everyone’s minds over the past year, and it is likely to be with us for a while. Students are one group that have been particularly affected by rises in the cost of living, as rent and the price of food have gone up against a backdrop of maintenance loans being lower in real terms compared with 2021.
Universities UK issued a stark warning in December 2022 that students ‘risk becoming the “forgotten group” in the cost of living crisis.’ But what about students who have recently submitted their UCAS application for September 2023 entry – what impact has the cost of living had on the decisions they have made over the past year?
We surveyed and listened to students to find out how cost of living factors were influencing the decisions they had made, and those they were about to make.
Here at UCAS, unsurprisingly, we saw high levels of awareness and concern about the cost of living among applicants for 2022 entry, and what it means to them regarding their student experience. But despite seeing more confirmed applicants using their ‘Decline my place’ option at the end of the cycle to study at institutions closer to home, which may have been prompted by cost considerations, decision making in general remained quite static, with no real change from what you would see in a normal year.
