Many students are in hardship before their studies have even begun due to, among other things, accommodation deposits and initial course costs.
To better understand the specific requirements and concerns of their students, especially those in receipt of the greatest levels of financial support, universities need to know how students spend the financial support they receive and how quickly and often they draw down these funds.
These were the questions my organisation, JS Group, set out to answer in the first ever analysis of what students spend bursary, scholarship, hardship funds and other such specialist financial investments on. We looked at the spending patterns of more than 53,000 UK students across a wide range of providerss who received more than £19m over the 2022-2023 academic year.
The findings are revealing, and sometimes surprising, but above all can be used to help providers direct these funds into what students really need and when they need it.
