Student Living

Index 2020

• This year, Manchester has emerged as the city offering the most value for student money. Not only do students in Manchester earn the second highest monthly income of £1,391.70, but they enjoy comparatively low monthly rent costs averaging £424.20 a month. Combining this with an average spend of £435.60 on items and activities leaves a typical Manchester student with £531.90 to save each month.
• For a consecutive year, London holds the title with the highest university living costs. When looking at the figures, they receive a term-time income of £1,137.30, with year-on-year accommodation costs rising from £705 to £717 each month. London’s students are left with £420.30 to cover lifestyle costs, which amount to £579.50 on average for items and activities. This means students based in London require an additional monthly income boost of £159.50, which is the likely reason they feel the financial burdens of living in the capital.
• £1,063.70 is the average term-time income UK students receive in 2020. The students pocketing the highest monthly income are those based in Cambridge, grossing £1,447.20 on average. Students at Cambridge are the most reliant on student loans receiving £661.7 monthly, 26% above national average. By contrast, students based in Scotland borrow at least 28% less than the national average, although they have a lower average monthly income.
• Nationwide, students’ term-time income has dropped by £50 on average. This is most noticeable in Bristol and Cardiff, where students are coping with losses of over £300 per month. Manchester, is thriving at 24% above national average, a major contribution to its success in this year's index.
• Students based in historic universities, including Oxford, Edinburgh and Cambridge, tend to lean the most on family support to fund their daily expenditures, receiving over £300 in parental support per month. For those studying in Edinburgh, term-time work contributes the most towards monthly income at £182, almost double the national average. This trend is consistent across Scottish and Irish cities and can be attributed to them spending more time in part-time work.  

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• London surpasses Manchester to become the most fashion-focused student city. London-based students spend an average of £64.20 per month on clothes and fashion, nearly twice the national average of £32.60
• Oxford and Leicester fall on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to alcohol spend. Oxford's students spend the most on alcohol at £44.90 per month. This is over twice as much as students at Leicester, who were the lowest spenders on alcohol this year at an average of £18 per month.
• The most expensive place for alcoholic drinks in the UK goes to the South of England, with the average expected price for a pint increasing by over a pound year-on-year. London takes the lead for the highest expected cost of a spirit mixer, at £5.50, while Scottish cities all fall below the national average and within the £3.40 to £3.70 range.
• Costs of student household bills have almost halved over the last two years since the 2018 index, with UK-wide averages dipping from £45 to £24 per month in 2020.
• Students based in York are making the most of the reduced household bills, carrying expenses as low as just £5.80 per month. This represents a tenth of what students in Aberdeen are paying, which is over double the national average, at £53.80.
• Students in London spend the most on a night out in the city, at an average cost of £27, with as many as 30% of them spending over £20 individually on each night out. Given this, 29% of London's students choose not to go out in the capital at all.
• At £18.60 and 12% above national average, students going out for a meal in Bristol spend the most, closely followed by Aberdeen. In the Northeast, students in Durham spend the least on a meal out in the city at £12.50, 22% below national average.

*Data excludes those who do not drink

• With the arrival of new money management technologies, students are adopting a tech savvy approach to budgeting in 2020. Almost two thirds of all students use a mobile app to stay on top of their outgoings. This on-the-go approach has replaced the traditional Excel spreadsheet to be the most prevalent budgeting method.
• Students in Edinburgh and Cambridge are the most committed to saving money. They set aside an additional 36% of their income every month when compared to the national average. This is more than double the amount of money that students in Liverpool save, who put aside £55.50 on average monthly.
• The majority of students in the UK (56%) will use a traditional bank savings account or an ISA to transfer funds when possible, whereas one in five students don't save anything at all.
• Cambridge outshines most universities when it comes to support in managing student finances. 16% of students at Cambridge say they feel supported, compared with less than 2% of students in Plymouth.
• On the whole, the availability of student discounts has taken a hit from 2018 with almost 9% fewer students being offered NUS student cards and 5% fewer students claiming to own union discount cards.
• Almost half of students in Swansea and Poole are likely to find themselves running out of money before the end of the Semester. Students based in Scotland are among the least likely, with only 24% claiming they regularly run out compared to a UK average of 33%.

• Students in the North East of England have become this year's most social with those at Durham and Newcastle spending 43.3 and 40.9 hours doing so each month, taking first and second place. Interestingly, while students in Glasgow are the most hard-working in Scotland, they also spend 26.1 hours socialising each month, which is 2.2 hours below national average, and 8.1 hours less than those at Edinburgh, the most social students in Scotland.
• Glasgow's students are Scotland's most hard-working, spending 67.5 hours studying on campus whilst also juggling 18.2 hours in part-time work each month. This places Glasgow in third position across the UK in both categories with students at Oxbridge being the most studious and those at Belfast dedicating the most hours each month to part-time work.
• Glasgow is amongst the universities most likely to be chosen for subject choice, with two in three students listing it as their primary reason for studying in the Scottish capital. This places it third in the UK, behind only Liverpool and York.
• In 2020 students are dedicating less money and more time to both their academic and social activities. Across the UK, average monthly spend on academic studies has reduced by a pound to stand at £11 each month, whilst as many as 70% of UK students don't spend any money on their studies. Social spend has also decreased, a reduction of two pounds, taking the average monthly social spend to £42.
• Aberdeen performs well when it comes to students' enjoyment of their degree studies. 52% of students in Aberdeen say they are currently enjoying their studies, meaning Aberdeen has the highest levels of student enjoyment in Scotland, and places them 8% above national average. Aberdeen also ranks third across the UK when it comes to supporting student mental wellbeing at 38% - 11% above the national average.
• Although 44% of UK students claim to be enjoying studying for their degree, 41% also feel stressed by the process.

• Across the UK, Edinburgh's students earn the highest average monthly income at £267.80, with those in Portsmouth earning the lowest average monthly income of £95.20. Edinburgh’s students are also the highest earners when it comes to part-time work as they capitalise on an average income of £182.80 a month. The lowest earnings are reported by Durham’s students at an average of £45.10 for term time work. With that said, students at Durham were also among the most reliant on parental financial support.
• When comparing holiday earnings, students in Aberdeen earn the most outside of term-time, enjoying an average of £134.40 a month, five times the amount students in Sheffield earn at an average of £25.30 monthly. By comparison, those in Aberdeen work for two hours less each month than students in Sheffield.
• Positive correlations were found in this year’s index between time spent socialising and degree enjoyment. Students that don’t engage in social activities at all are 13% less likely to enjoy their degree on average compared with students that spend more than nine hours each month socialising.
• The study also reveals correlations between the amount of part-time work taken up and degree enjoyment. On average, students who work for more than seven hours each month tend to enjoy their studies 10% less than those who don’t work at all.

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• Each year, students are placing more importance on their mental wellbeing. This year's index reveals 27% of students feel satisfied by their university's mental health resources, up from one in four last year. However, the number of students that feel as though these programmes are accessible and affordable has dropped to 58%, a year-on-year fall of 13%.
• Ranking top for mental wellbeing support is Southampton, with a satisfaction rate of 49%. Aberdeen is ahead of the curve in Scotland, with 38% of its students feeling satisfied by the mental wellbeing support provided. This takes Aberdeen to third position in the UK and it is the only Scottish university to score above the national average of 27%.
• Edinburgh is this year's city of choice for those students seeking the most affordable mental wellbeing support. 80% of Edinburgh's students agreed that the wellbeing programmes on offer were accessible, that's 22% above national average and 5% above Southampton in second place.

• Edinburgh is flying the flag for Scotland when analysing sustainability initiatives on campus. One in three students in Edinburgh believe their university is committed to promoting these types of initiatives, placing it seventh in the UK and above the national average of 26%.
• Nottingham has clearly invested a lot of resource into making their campus as sustainable as possible. Half of their students agree that they do a lot to promote sustainability. To put this into context, that score is twice the national average and 10% greater than the university in second place, Poole.
• Unfortunately the same can't be said in Durham. Just 6% of Durham's students are happy with the levels of sustainability encouraged on campus.