Hidden cost of learning: financial strain reshaping student life

Introduction
Students across the UK are confronting a growing crisis: shrinking maintenance loans, soaring rent, and rising living costs have created a "cost of learning crisis." For many, academic life is increasingly defined by working long hours, cutting back on essentials, and juggling multiple responsibilities—and the toll is reshaping both their university experience and their wider wellbeing.

Financial Pressure Intensifies: Maintenance Loans Aren’t Enough
Maintenance loans, designed to help students with living costs while studying, now cover only about half to three‑quarters of actual expenses. In 2024–25, the maximum maintenance loan for students living outside London covered just 55% of basic living costs—down from 74% in 2010. Even in London, where costs are higher, loans cover only about 61%. The shortfall translates into thousands of pounds monthly for those studying away from home and struggling with rent hikes, utility bills, and everyday essentials.

For many students, these financial gaps mean stretching loans across rent, food, travel, and study resources—with nothing left over. They face difficult decisions about prioritizing study time or paid work, cutting back on social or support structures, or even considering dropping out.

Students Heading to Work: Study Time Shrinking
A 2025 survey by HEPI found that nearly 68% of undergraduates now work during term time—up from just 35% in 2015. Average weekly work hours have risen to approximately 14.5 hours, pushing combined study-and-work time to almost 48 hours a week. As more hours go to paid work, independent study is increasingly squeezed—falling from 13.6 hours weekly in 2024 to just 11.6 hours in 2025.

The effect is particularly acute for students from low-income backgrounds and commuters, who already devote more time and money to travel. Work demands crowd out learning time, social opportunities, and restful balance.

Mental Health Under Strain
Financial hardship is strongly linked with worsening mental health. Surveys consistently show that around 85% of students report money worries, and more than half say finance stress negatively affects their mental wellbeing. Commuter students are hit especially hard: 61% report that financial worry damages their mental health.

Psychological responses include increased stress, anxiety, isolation, and hopelessness. Some students say they feel chronically fatigued, unable to focus—resulting in lower grades or disengagement from university life. A growing number even considered abandoning their studies due to financial strain.

What Financial Strain Costs Students

• Reduced academic performance: Less independent study, missed deadlines, or skipped classes due to work.

• Limited university engagement: Avoided social activities, societies, field trips, or events due to cost.

• Physical hardship: Some students report skipping meals or limiting energy use to cut costs.

• Health impacts: Increased reports of stress, depression, anxiety, and in extreme cases, disordered eating.

• Burnout risk: The pressure of working 14+ hours and studying full time regularly exceeds healthy workload levels.

The Commuter Student Dilemma
Commuter students—those living at home to save on rent—face accumulating transport costs. Surveys show they need nearly £671 more monthly to stay afloat, compared to £329 in 2021. The cost of daily train or bus fares, delays, and long journeys compound stress, making it harder to participate in campus life, attend labs, and receive peer or tutor support in person.

Many commuter students cut engagement with campus communities or migrate to remote learning options, further eroding the holistic student experience that universities aim to offer.

The Drop-out Risk
Financial strain is driving students to consider leaving university. Around one-third said they might drop out due to money struggles. Indicators of risk include:

• Inability to afford coursework or living expenses.

• Need to work excessive hours.

• Falling behind academically.

• Lack of social or organizational support due to cost barriers.

Although dropout decisions are complex, many report that financial put-downs are at least a significant contributing factor—sometimes outweighing academic performance concerns.

Value for Money: A Declining Perception
Only about 37% of students now rate their degree as “good” or “very good” value for money, down from 39% in 2024. Students cite stagnant tuition fees, underfunded services, and stress-laden workloads as key reasons. Despite the decline in perceived value, around 26% still feel their experience exceeds expectations, indicating that positivity persists for some despite adversity.

Broader Impact: Access, Equity, and Social Mobility
Financial hardship disproportionately impacts students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Age, Black ethnicity, low socioeconomic status, and commuter status are strong predictors of hardship risk. Real-term maintenance grants were scrapped years ago, and recent loan increases have not kept pace with inflation.

Students from underrepresented groups face a double bind: limited time for paid work, lower access to social capital, and fewer extracurricular experiences that can strengthen graduate employability—ultimately weakening the goals of widening participation and social mobility.

University Responses and Limitations
Many institutions have responded with hardship funds, food bank services, subsidized meals, discounted rents, free digital tools, and mental health support. Yet barriers remain: applications are often time-consuming, funds limited, and eligibility rules restrictive. Without simplification and increased funding, students continue to feel unsupported in critical ways.

Policy Measures in Motion
The government has introduced modest loan increases and tuition fee uplifts, and injected more into hardship fund schemes. But critics argue that incremental changes are not enough. A major review of maintenance loan structures, grant reinstatements, and accommodation support is increasingly viewed as essential by experts and universities alike.

How Students Cope: Survival Strategies
Students employ various strategies to survive financially:

• Packing lunches rather than buying meals out.

• Using campus facilities (like libraries or labs) longer to avoid heating or energy costs at home.

• Maximizing discount schemes, second-hand books, and budgeting apps.

• Taking multiple zero-hours or gig-economy jobs—though these are unstable and stressful.

• Skipping extracurriculars or societies to save time and money.

These strategies aim to preserve academic participation, but at the cost of wellbeing and holistic engagement.

Mental Health Support and Emerging Needs
In response to demand, universities are expanding counselling services, peer support initiatives, and mental health awareness on campus. Recognizing the link between money stress and mental health, some institutions offer targeted financial counselling and budgeting tools. Yet demand often outpaces capacity, leaving many students without timely help.

Stories from Students on the Ground
While many students quietly endure hardship, others voice frustration:

“Working twelve hours a week just to make rent, I barely have time to breathe let alone study.”
“Missing out on field trips because I can’t afford the cost—feels like regular students get a richer experience.”

These anonymized accounts echo broader patterns: academic life complicated by financial necessity, eroding engagement, and mounting stress about future prospects.

What It All Means for Universities
The financial strain students face threatens:

• Academic outcomes: Poorer retention, lower grades, delayed graduation.

• Institutional reputation: Perceptions that universities struggle to offer value.

• Equity goals: Widening gaps between privileged and less privileged students.

To reverse these trends, proactive institutional strategies are needed: easier hardship access, integrated financial wellbeing initiatives, and partnerships with local services and policymakers to secure sustainable funding.

Looking Ahead: Recommendations and Hope
Key steps policymakers and universities could prioritize include:

• Restoring means-tested maintenance grants.

• Indexing maintenance loans to inflation.

• Subsidizing student rent or partnering with affordable housing.

• Simplifying hardship fund access and broadening eligibility.

• Offering paid internships or work-study schemes.

• Embedding financial literacy and wellbeing resources into the student journey.

• Monitoring and supporting commuter students with travel subsidies and flexible coursework.

By recognizing that financial strain is reshaping learning—not just costing students money—the sector can begin building equity-centered, learning-focused reforms.
The "hidden cost of learning" is far more than financial; it's eroding study time, undermining wellbeing, and narrowing the university experience for many. For students, learning now includes balancing work shifts, rationing food, commuting long distances, and managing mental and physical fatigue. While many show remarkable resilience, these burdens risk undermining the promise of access and equity that higher education stands for. Only through sustained support, policy change, and institutional commitment can students reclaim the full value of their education—and rise above the hidden costs of learning.