Students will abandon their degree courses unless “immediate action” is taken to offset the cost of living, university leaders have warned. Vice-chancellors are calling on Britain’s next prime minister to bring back maintenance grants and provide targeted hardship funding for UK students.
Most current support measures are unlikely to help the majority of students because they are mainly targeted at people on means-tested benefits, pensioners and families, analysis by Universities UK found. New polling by Savanta ComRes found 67% of students in higher education are concerned about managing their living costs this autumn, rising to 85% of students over the age of 30.
Of those, more than half (55%) say this may prevent them from continuing with their studies, including eight in 10 postgraduate taught students. The Bank of England has warned the UK will tip into recession this year, with inflation already at 10.1%.
