More students planning to live at home for university over ‘insane’ living costs
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Vanessa Clarke | Senior education reporter | Emily Doughty / BBC
Friends Amelia (left) and Beatrice (right) are living at home when they start university this September.
More new students are choosing to live at home for university this year than at any point in the last nine years, according to data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas). Over 81,000 UK 18-year-olds indicated in their university applications that they intended to live at home this year, representing just over one in three students in that category. In 2017, this figure was closer to one in five.
The trend varies across the UK, with 48% of applicants in Scotland planning to live at home, compared to 20% in Wales, but the numbers are rising across the board.
Students tell the BBC that the rising cost of living is a major influence in their decisions about post-school or college life.
Beatrice and Amelia, both from St Helens, Merseyside, are heading to university in September, but neither will be moving into student accommodation. Beatrice is off to the University of Manchester to study maths and plans to commute by train, a journey that can take about 50 minutes in total.
"My first choice was Manchester and then my second was Liverpool, so I knew I could commute," she says, adding that accommodation would have been "a few grand a year".
Amelia, who is going to study at Liverpool John Moores University, approximately 20 minutes away by train, says she found accommodation priced between £300 and £400 a week.
Although neither is looking forward to the commute, both hope to experience university life while living at home.
Jessica, another student heading to Liverpool John Moores University, feels she will miss out on the full university experience because of the cost of renting, which she calls "ridiculous" and "insane".
"I have a part-time job as everything is so expensive, and then commuting is going to kill a lot of my free time as well," she says. "It is a bit sad really when you think about it." She is, however, pleased to still be able to enjoy her parents’ home-cooked meals.
Earlier this year, BBC News followed the daily commute of a first-year student who said she was saving over £7,000 on accommodation by commuting 90 minutes into Manchester each day from home.
A record number of UK 18-year-olds have been accepted into university.
