When I wrote London Higher’s Living and Learning in London report a year ago, we were the first organisation to use HEPI/AdvanceHE’s Student Academic Experience Survey data to investigate how student experience differs in a particular UK region. We looked at London students’ answers to the survey questions, and we also considered the student experiences of student groups particularly well-represented in the capital such as international students, mature students and students of ethnicities other than white. Using such a range of survey questions with so many ways of splitting the data out, we were able to triangulate highly specific aspects of the many student experiences being lived across London at institutions of different size, specialism, local community and tariff group.
Everything we found in last year’s report was closely tied to and dependent on the circumstances in which students were living when the data was gathered in 2022. The Covid-19 lockdowns were still influencing daily lives and dominating our findings were a lack of opportunities to meet and socialise with other students, online engagement with teaching staff, and loneliness (particularly for international students). When the 2023 data were released, we were interested in what might have changed over twelve months for students in London. Here’s what we found:
By 2023, the immediate impacts of the Covid-19 lockdowns were fading and the ‘new normal’ for higher education students involved, among other things, a cost of living crisis that has been particularly severe in the capital. We were keen to understand how London students, and the communities particularly well-represented in London, felt about the value for money their courses provide and the jobs they are taking on in increasing numbers outside their studies.
