‘It takes a mental toll’: students in England priced out of university towns

Student rents are soaring while maintenance loans have barely increased, squeezing students’ budgets. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Elena Dirik is studying politics and sociology in Bristol, the UK’s most expensive city in which to study after London, and has so far stayed afloat thanks to care-leaver bursaries and working in two jobs. But with housing costs soaring, she is planning to move to south Wales next year.

Dirik, 21, wants to be able to focus on her studies for her final year instead of working, after already retaking her second year, but even living in nearby towns such as Newport will be a stretch, with prices increasing as more students move there.