City in top three of best places in UK to be student
Survey on costs of rent, socialising and food
LEICESTER has been named one of the best places to be a student in the UK, according to the Student Living Index 2020.
The index has been put together by NatWest and it ranks Leicester in the top three student cities, just behind Manchester and Cambridge.
The final ranking was based on interviews with more than 2,800 students in June.
Leicester earns its high ranking based on how much it costs students for food, rent and socialising.
The cost of accommodation, the weekly shop and nights out in the city combined was far cheaper than Birmingham (placed eighth), Coventry (at number 20) and neighbouring Nottingham (at number 21). According to the index, students in Leicester
only spend an average of £18 a month on alcohol, which is less than anywhere else in the country.
They also spend an average of 98.9 hours a month studying, compared with 23.8 hours socialising, and many students juggle their studies with part-time work.
The survey also found the average rent in Leicester was £342 a month, compared to £383 in Sheffield, £435 in Coventry, £436 in Nottingham and £469 in Birmingham.
It is also a wallet-friendly city – when students go out, they pay on average £3.40 a pint – compared with Cambridge, where it cost £5.
NatWest combines the cost of rent, food and socialising and divides it by monthly income, made up of student loans, wages from part-time work and any bursaries or scholarships to put together its annual index. Tierney Morris, who has just graduated in International Business at De Montfort University, said: “I really like Leicester.
“It’s small enough to walk everywhere and it’s close to campus, people are friendly, and there are lots of things happening, good bars. It is a good city to be a student in.”
The Index was developed by PwC and the think tank Demos.
Leicester was ranked not just against economic factors, but against measures which the public vote as most important such as health, work-life balance, the environment and jobs.
Diya Rattanpaul, equality and diversity executive on De Montfort Students’ Union, said: “I love how multicultural it is. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly in Leicester – and I really love Narborough Road.”