Students face ‘most expensive year’
Students are set to endure the most expensive academic year to date, according to research from the Open University.
The first Student Price Index Survey has found that students will suffer an inflation rate 50% higher than average.
Undergraduates spend much more of their income on the goods that have risen in price fastest over the last year – food, housing, clothing, tobacco,travel and tuition fees. This has resulted in students experiencing a true rate of inflation of 7%, compared to the government’s Consumer Price Index of 4.4%.
Economist Alan Shipman, who produced the index, said: “Inflation hits different socio-economic groups in varying ways. In my research, students certainly are experiencing a higher inflationary rate because the cost of what they need to buy is among the highest categories of price rises.”
“To say that this will be the most expensive academic year for higher education students to date would not be stretching it.”
The research found that in 2006 and 2007, full-time students’ cost of living actually rose twice as fast as that of the average UK household.
NUS president Wes Streeting said that on the basis of the research, students ‘are in for a rude awakening’ and called for better information, advice and guidance for students on how to manage their finances, ‘particularly in the current economic climate’.
He added: "Students will also need as much financial support as possible. Unfortunately, at the moment, each university is left to administer its own bursary system, and students tell us that the application process is often very confusing.”
“Instead of the system being different in every university, we need a single national student support scheme, so it is simpler for students to make a claim, and so that support is based on what students need, not where they study.”
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