Solent University Cost-Of-Living Crisis
Here is a investigative journalism article about the impacts that the Cost-Of-Living Crisis (COLC) has had on Solent University students.
For this piece, a survey was sent out to all university students and two Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were sent to the Student Loans Company and Solent University.
Here is the Article:
STARTS:
A recent study by the Daily Echo has revealed that 43% of student loans do not cover a semester’s rent for Southampton Solent University students.
In a survey conducted by the Daily Echo, 32 students were asked questions regarding the amount of loan they receive, what they first do with the loan, and finally, whether the Cost-Of-Living Crisis (COLC) has affected their time at university.
Shockingly, 43% of participants revealed that their loan does not cover their rent for the semester, 84% said the COLC has affected the way they think about money, and 62.5% say the COLC has caused them financial problems at university.
From this, 72% of students turned to family and friends for financial support, while 20% even debated applying for a credit card.
‘Things happen and things change at university, and I know some people’s parents will not give them money,’ claims 21-year-old Owen Huggins, who is left ‘annoyed’ that he must work part-time just to afford his rent.
‘It is extremely hard to create that balancing act of making sure I’m working enough so that I have money to enjoy myself, but then also having time to myself to relax.
‘I have had breakdowns, especially since the start of this year because I was so overwhelmed and had so much on my plate. I will say however, I am incredibly lucky with my job, as it is not too stressful.’
Owen is just one of many students who do not receive enough maintenance loan that covers three months of his rent, and he turned to Solent University for a hardship bursary.
The hardship bursary is designed to help students who are struggling financially during their studies, the link their website states that it helps with:
- Living Costs
- Childcare
- Travel
- Accommodation
- Household expenses
- Books and course equipment
Solent makes it clear that the grant will not help people who have just mismanaged their finances.
Despite meeting two points of the criteria, and unable to mismanage his finances because he simply does not receive enough, Owen’s application was rejected, a decision that infuriated him: ‘I applied for a hardship bursary from Solent University because I was struggling and had bad mental health issues.
‘I had a month off work because of this then I ended up being behind on a rent payment.
‘I was rejected on the grounds that my parents’ income was not filled out. They argued that my parents should be able to give me money – but they do not have it.
‘It was a kick in the teeth, I only needed it this one time because I had been out of work suffering with mental health.
‘My evidence was compelling; I think parental income on student finance is looked upon too much. Things happen and things change at university, and I know some people’s parents will not give them money.’
To help guide this investigation, a freedom of information (FOI) request was sent to Student Loans Company (SLC), requesting information regarding maintenance loan amounts and how they help students struggling with the COLC.
For the 2023/2024 academic year, the SLC raised maintenance loans by 2.8% to help the rising inflation rates.
The Department of Educaton (DfE) also announced a multimillion-pound package to help students cover living and other costs in January 2023, while also freezing tuition fees for two-years to reduce student debt levels.
The SLC also makes it clear that living location makes an impact in the amount of mainentence loan received per semester.
An example of this could be seen in the SLC FOI answer, that saw some students receive £12,947 during the first semester of the 2022/2023 academic year.
It is highly likely that students living in London will receive a higher amount of loan per semester, to cover the increased rent fund and inflated costs of food.
Sam Jackson, a postgraduate from Solent University said that the COLC did impact the way he spent his money at university, despite receiving enough maintenance loan to cover his rent: ‘My maintenance loan covered most of my rent and bills, but I still had to work to cover the rest and give me a chance to be social able while I was at uni.
‘I noticed while at uni the prices of many foods increased which caused me to be savvier with my shopping and lean more towards products which were less expensive such as store-owned brands so the quality would be worse.’
But despite the rising costs, Sam was able to have the university experience that many dream of and learned some valuable life lessons along the way: ‘I did everything that I wanted to do socially, it was never really affected by rising prices etc.
‘My work was very flexible so if I ever needed time off particularly for uni, they allowed it. But I was lucky that I had good managers who cared for me, a lot of my friends were not able to get time off and that made them struggle.
‘I just had to be careful not to blow all my money out the window when I went out. It taught me a lot of life lessons regarding managing money.’
Sam also noted that Solent could do better in making support more known and accessible for students: ’The Uni could have made it more obvious where the support is when you have financial problems, or they could have reached out more as it is one of the biggest stresses in people’s life and sometimes, they will not go directly.
‘It is a big worry at this age, and people are scared to ask parents for money. So perhaps there should be a pool of money set out in the Universities budget to give to students who find themselves in financial trouble, I got lucky.’
An email was sent to Solent University’s Head of Wellness Sue Lory for an interview, regarding this topic, and whether the COLC causes students to have an unpleasant experience at Solent, but this request was denied.
A further FOI request was sent to Solent University, looking at therapy statistics from the previous academic year and whether it was related to financial issues and how many students applied for the hardship bursary last year, but no response was received.
*The cost-of-living crisis is one of the biggest threats facing the public to date. The term refers to the fall in ‘real’ disposable incomes and the UK has seen a dramatic fall since late 2021.
The government has responded to the crisis with packages of support in 2022 and 2023, the packages for household support totaled £59.8 billion during 22/23 and they are expected to spend another £21.4 billion between 23/24.
Despite the government’s work, household incomes are not keeping up with living costs and are not expected to return to pre COLC levels until 2027.
The COVID-19 pandemic alongside disruptions to global supply chains are two of the main reasons that prices have increased rapidly over the last two years.
But the main contribution to the rise of costs has been Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Most of the UK’s agricultural commodities such as grain and sunflower oil come from Ukraine, with the war continuing to go on and the lack of export, this has dramatically increased food prices of these certain products.
There has also been a dramatic increase in the price of energy worldwide. The government intervened with the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), if they had not, the average household’s energy bill would have increased to £4,000.
The biggest impact, however, has been on gas prices. The UK imports 13% of its total fuel from Russia and despite leaving the European Union (EU), the UK and EU’s gas prices move together. *Information in this section was collected and used from Theinstitueforgoverment.org.uk
Cost of living crisis | Institute for Government
The 32 students surveyed by the Echo for this investigation were asked to leave a sentence stating how the COLC has caused them to think about money differently, here are some of the answers:
‘Certain items cost more, so I question if I should carry on buying them or find a cheaper alternative.’
‘It stresses me out that I won’t have enough for every-day essentials.’
‘Food shopping is stressful.’
‘I debate whether something is essential or if I should save my money more often.’
There is no doubt that the COLC has had a dramatic effect on student’s mental health at university, particularly the students who do not even get enough maintenance loan to cover a semester’s worth of rent.
It is clear that the SLC needs to take this into account, and work on a way to help the students who are ‘left in the dark’ financially during a critically important 3+ years of their life.
ENDS – 1,462 Words