• 46% of students say they’re planning to commute instead of living in their university town.
• Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent is the most affordable university city in the UK, with monthly expenses coming out to £1,047.
• Unsurprisingly, London is the most expensive city for university students. Monthly living costs are over double the least expensive city (£2,210 vs. £1,047).

27 August, 2024, LONDON –

With inflation continuing to squeeze, cost of living is a major factor when considering where to go to uni. The 2024 Student Money & Wellbeing survey of 1,200 students in the UK found that almost half (46%) are planning on commuting instead of living in their university town.

And, according to new research from Finder.com, the average monthly cost of living in university cities in the UK is £1,296, despite the average maintenance loan for students being just £633 per month (£7,590 a year). As many students will still be relying on these to cover things like rent over the summer months, students could be finding themselves short on cash. The average monthly shortfall students will have to make up between cost of living and maintenance loans is £663.

Even with the increase in students commuting to and from university, there will still be over a million students leaving home this fall to attend university, according to the latest numbers from HESA*. Factoring in how to budget for their new city will be a crucial step in adjusting to uni life.

The most (and least) expensive uni cities and towns

The cost of living varies across the UK and Finder’s student costs calculator shows how both rent prices and overall expenses change depending on where you study.

London is far and away the city in the UK with the most unis, and students planning to live in the capital are going to pay a pretty penny for it. For students planning on attending one of the 40 universities based in London, the average monthly living costs work out to about £2,210. To account for these higher living costs, those studying in London qualify for a higher maximum maintenance loan amount (up to £13,348 p.a. vs. £10,227 for the 2024/2025 academic year).

Edinburgh comes in as a distant number two, with students attending one of the Scottish capital’s 4 universities budgeting monthly living costs around £1,672 p.c.m. University students in Oxford (£1,649), Cambridge (£1,623), and Brighton (£1,570) round out the list of the top 5 most expensive cities in the UK for living costs.

On the flip side, students moving to Stoke-on-Trent to attend Staffordshire University could be set to save. Stoke-on-Trent came in as the most affordable university city in the UK with monthly living costs coming out to just over £1,000 a month at £1,047.

Sunderland is equally budget-friendly for its uni students, coming out to £1,048 a month, followed by University of Hull in Hull (£1,107), University of Cumbria in Carlisle (£1,111), and Lancaster University in Lancaster (£1,113).

You can see how your uni town or city compares to your home town or city using Finder’s student cost of living calculator here: https://www.finder.com/uk/current-accounts/student-bank-accounts/student-living-costs-calculator

Most expensive uni cities

Least expensive uni cities

How students are making/can make ends meet

With well over half of students saying maintenance loans aren’t enough to cover living expenses in even the most budget-friendly of uni cities, students are getting creative with how they earn some extra cash. According to Save the Student, 56% worked a part-time job while at uni in 2023, and a third of students (36%) had their own business or side hustle. Taking advantage of all the student discounts and perks available to you during your time at uni is another easy way to save while you study.

Louise Bastock, personal finance expert at finder.com, said:

“Uni is the perfect time to start some good financial habits if you haven’t already. From railcards to tastecards to interest-free overdrafts, there’s no reason for you not to make the most out of your student status with various banking offers. It’s best practice to avoid the interest-free overdraft on student bank accounts, but a few big nights out in a row and it’s easy to find yourself there.

“Student credit cards can also be a good way to start building credit, but only if you can pay off the balance in full each month. You can start by using your credit card for just one regular essential purchase each month, then setting it to automatically pay off the balance, rather than relying on it for everyday spending and running up a huge bill.”

Methodology:

*According to HESA, there were 2,175,530 home students in 2022/2023. If 46% of those were to commute, that would mean 1,174,786 moved to their university city.

Maintenance loan figures are from UK GOV and HEPI.

Student cost of living calculator: For the student rent, the price of a 4-bedroom house was taken from home.co.uk and divided by 4 to get the price of a room in a shared house. The median rental price was taken to avoid skewing by expensive properties.

To find the cost of living (without rent) in each city, data for a single person’s estimated monthly costs were taken from Numbeo’s cost of living database. Where specific cost of living was not available for a city due to a low number of data points, the nearest large city or UK average cost of living was taken. This includes food, entertainment, transport, bills, and all other regular living costs.