Students hit by £1,000 rent rise as loans fail to keep pace

Some at Russell Group institutions skipping meals and considering dropping out over cost of living

RUSSELL Group universities have increased rents at some student halls by more than £1,000 a year since the start of the pandemic, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Students at University College London (UCL) and the universities of Glasgow and Leeds are now paying at least £1,000 a year more for university-managed accommodation, compared to the academic year before the pandemic.

Average annual rents for student halls at those universities have risen by around a fifth between 2018-19 and 2022-23 to £9,177 at UCL, £6,125 at Glasgow and £6,335 at Leeds, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have shown.

For many students, maintenance loans have not kept pace with rising accommodation costs, putting pressure on parents to provide financial support.

Students from families with a household income of around £62,000 or more have seen annual maintenance support rise by just £470 since before the pandemic, hundreds of pounds below the rent increases imposed at Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, Liverpool and Manchester.

For students with household income of £45,000, support has risen by £725, while for those with the lowest household incomes, it has risen by £1,006.

The findings come amid evidence that students are skipping meals and considering dropping out because of the cost of living.

They are also facing steep rent increases in privately managed student housing, which they are likely to move into for their second and third years.

The Telegraph analysed data from FOI requests to Russell Group universities to assess average rents.

Those for York, LSE and Exeter were calculated from individual accommodation prices. Rents at Oxford and Cambridge were averaged across individual colleges.

Russell Group universities have invested millions of pounds in hardship funding to support students, and they are urging the Government to provide additional support after it was announced that maintenance loans would rise by just 2.8 per cent next year.

A UCL spokesman said it has an access scheme which offers “additional rent support aimed at providing affordable accommodation for every student that chooses to study here”.

A University of York spokesman said: “We provide a net subsidy to student accommodation and do not generate a profit – in fact it makes a loss, and this will be the case again this year and in future years.”

Manchester University said that it makes sure its lowest-priced halls “have the lowest price increases which for this year was 1.5 per cent, many times below inflation.”

The University of Cambridge said: “Colleges provide accommodation to most of their students at rents which include energy bills and other costs and are well below the market rate.

“Each college also provides significant tailored financial support to those most in need.”