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Was lucky enough to receive support in first year that provided me with free food across campus. Came into my second year and this has been taken away because I'm no longer a first year student. I do not understand how being a second year student changes my financial position. This makes resources that allowed university to be accessible to me in first year no longer applicable, with no forewarning that this wouldn't be available to me going forward. It is ridiculous.

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We all pay over 9 grand a year, but where does that money even go?? The welcome pack I received was awful, it was just a scalpel and a felt tip pen! And the materials in our actual lessons are just dissapointing, us students are too broke to be paying extra when the university fails to provide..

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I think the way that qualifies students for certain loans it just wrong, I get the smallest loan due to my parents earnings, but it doesn't take into account other important factors.. such as my siblings, or debt.. one of the main issues I have is: I AM NOT MY PARENTS, I do not receive any money from them (as much as they wish they could help me out, they just can't), and I have unfortunately found myself without a job. I cannot afford to pay rent let alone live.. I feel like the loans shouldn't be based on your parents earnings, because thats not OUR money, that is not OUR earnings, we need help!

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despite receiving a full student loan, i am still struggling for money because rent is so high. the breakdown of rent compared to student finance, means that i am receiving the smallest payment of my student loan this term, but paying the most amount on my rent. this has left me with just under £600 to live on from september to december, which, with christmas round the corner, i'm not sure how i'm going to cope.

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i am really lucky to have a sewing machine already but it seems ridiculous to expect us to pay for materials when we're already paying almost 10k a year just to study here, not including rent. i got the minimum maintenance loan even though i am disabled and my parents can't afford to cover all of the shortfall :-( so i am going to have to work on top of everything and it's so frustrating

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I support the teacher strikes, but with the cost of living those who are in town and need to get the bus for uni I feel bad for them when they turn up and there's no lectures for the day but we weren't notified. Some couse lectureres let their students know about it but for other who don't know they "suffer at the end" as they already spent £3 for a return ticket and paying so much money for uni but now ending us having a class. So it's been wasted. And could be going on for multiple days in this month. 😔😔

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I don't drink. I don't club. I don't eat out other than McDonald's. I've had maybe two takeaways since moving here in September.
And even then, I might have to start selling my stuff to pay for food soon.

My laptop crashes running Microsoft word, it takes ages just to open Photoshop or Premiere pro (both required for my course) let alone actually doing anything on them
Equipment we need for uni like laptops costs hundreds, for some people costs thousands

No where seems to want to hire me either, and even without a job to earn money uni is supposedly 40 hours a week, although sometimes I think it's more, that's a full time job in itself.

Adults tend to look at students like we spend all our time drinking and messing around. Maybe that's the case for some people, maybe it was the case for everyone in the 90s.
A full time course is the same amount of time as a full time job. Many of us have a job to try and keep up with bills on top of that. And we need to do everything a single adult needs to do, deal with insurance, banks, doctors appointments, food shopping, washing up, laundry, etc.
Some people have even more on top of that.

Let's not forget many of us have to walk or get the bus everywhere. Busses to uni are fine, but I had to get a taxi to and from A&E a few weeks ago, that cost me 30 pounds for a medical emergency, which is more than I budget for food in a week.

As others have mentioned, the food at uni is extortionately priced, but often I have to pick between eating at uni or not eating until dinner. And the food isn't even great really. It's just fine enough to keep you going while you think about how much it costs and wasn't worth it.

I don't have the full maintenance loan, luckily my parents are in a position where they can help but some people who don't get the full loan can't get help from parents for whatever reason. Even if you're on the full loan, 10 grand a year is barely anything to live off.
If you were to work 40 hours a week on minimum wage you'd get almost 20 grand. How can anyone expect us to live on half of that?

And it's really hard to be motivated and creative, to be able to create uni work when this is such a big issue and worry for many of us.

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I have genuinely been considering dropping out (second year) as my money situation is so tight. To be at uni, I have to have a job, because I am on minimum student loan. The way student finance is worked out so ridiculous- I am not an only child and parents cannot afford to top me up with the excess money. Mental health means that working this job is incredibly anxiety inducing - I am getting stressed and depressed working a job I don’t want to afford to go here and seriously starting to question if it’s worth it. I had a long look at the uni “financial help” section and it is ATTROCIOUS. It recommends buying own brand products instead of name brands - thanks Uni! Buying lidl baked beans not Heinz is gonna mean I can afford to stay here next year! I hadn’t considered wiping my ass with Aldi bog roll instead of Andrex. The financial aid at uni seems poor and unobtainable, and I’ve spent most of winter cold and unhappy

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I just think we shouldn’t have to have our maintenance loan based on our household / parents income. It’s my debt at the end of the day and my parents can’t afford to help me out, yet my ML is lower than I hoped. I also think rent is too high, especially for the poor condition for my house. Food shops have become increasingly expensive to the point that I now have to prioritise food or fun and it’s gotten to the point I don’t think it’s worth being at university because I am no longe enjoying it because of the lack of having fun.

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On top of tuition fees, we also had to spend 2 grand on a kit with the materials needed for our first year of the course. On top of that we are also expected to purchase other items we may need that aren’t included in the kit. We also have to pay to top up any of these items when we run out of them. I feel that since we are already paying over 9 grand for our first year, we could expect to have some of these expenses lessened or taken care of.

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I want to socialise, go out, try new things but it's hard when I cant afford it! Let alone the fact I cant afford my rent. I have maintenance loan, help from parents AND a job and STILL I cant pay rent. Let alone see my friends when they want to go out.

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My rent is so high I might have to drop out

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My rent is so high I might have to drop out

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Rent is going up next year to 'combat the cost of living ' because of several mental health issues I have to live in a private accommodation that has 24hr staff, they're increasing they're rent by £1,000 next year even though the price is already extortionate and they make mass amounts of profit from students (which I find deplorable). My parents have been helping me massively as I struggle to work with my class hours and mental health issues but I find it unfair that my parents have to pay their student debts and then go further into debt just to allow me the chance to have an education.

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Every fight in my house is about switching the heating on. I can barely cover my rent and afford to eat. It's an absolute joke that the government are allowing people to literally starve and freeze and for what? Everyone deserves to be warm and full of food no matter what. The admin team at the University should be ashamed that they pay so little to their staff that some of them live in food poverty. I'm so tired of being hungry every day

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Unfortunately due to personal reasons I had to move out of my house into campus halls and  I love it here but I pay for it myself food, rent everything as a student on the foundation course u can’t get a loan there’s due to there being no tuition now I work 20 hours a week on top of uni to feed myself because I don’t qualify for Financial help and my single mother is trying her best but can’t help either so things like the sharing she’d have helped me massively

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I always bring my own lunch it is much much cheaper then buying sandwiches or lunch in uni. The canteen is servings £4 salad box while I can make a big pot of pasta with cheese and lots of veggies with £4. The inflation are getting more seriously day by day. Last week a cucumber has gone up to 75p.

Bus tickets are expensive, I am planning to start biking next year.

Also about the laundry, it's £3.6 for washing and around £2 for drying in Home Park with the Circuit. I bought a clothes air drying rack when the price gone up to this level.
Do we need to go back in time and wash clothes in the river?

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having to source our own materials is incredibly frustrating when we’re already paying thousands for course - but alongside the high prices in bills and food it’s becoming impossible to afford what I need to actually do my work

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The most frequent answer to ‘why I bring lunch to Uni’, and why most of my friends do, is the over-priced food at university. There is the Free-lunch coupon for people of low living wage, but with this Housing/ col crisis universities need to find a way to make food affordably and charge us fairly

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it’s just kinda crazy to me how our courses can ask for extra costs for barely a worthwhile pack of materials

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Can we use the hardship fund to help with cost of living?
Its not really "unforeseen circumstances" but I don't think there's anything else available funds wise.

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Grocery shopping is getting more and more expensive. We have to cut down on variety and buy things that will last, which I think is starting to impact health.
The sharing shed is a great idea but it doesn't really help in this way.

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I have a house share next year and we were worried about using the radiators to heat the house. Is it gonna be expensive if we are using the heater during the day when it's cold like most days?