Student Living Index 2020

• Manchester is this year's city offering the most value for student money. Students in Manchester earn the second highest monthly income at £1,391.70, as well as taking advantage of relatively low monthly rent costs averaging at £424.20 per month. This falls below the UK average by just over £13 a month. Combine an average spend of £435.60 on items and activities, and this leaves the average Manchester student with a disposable income of £531.90 each month.
• By contrast, London continues to hold the title for the city with the highest cost of living for students in 2020. With a term-time income of £1,137.30, students in London are having to cope with an increased cost of accommodation, rising from £705 to £717 each month in the last year. After accounting for living costs of £579.50 for items and activities, students based in London will need an additional £159.50 to cover basic living costs, meaning they're more likely to feel the financial burdens of living in the capital.
• Average term-time income in the UK for 2020 is £1,063.70. This year, students based in Cambridge are benefitting from the highest monthly income, receiving £1,447.20 on average per month, 26% above the national average. This, coupled with average monthly rent costs of £494.80, makes Cambridge the city with the second best value for money. On the other end, Southampton offers the lowest term-time income at £820.10, 23% below national average.
• Overall, term time income has declined by £50. This decline in income is seen in Bristol and Cardiff, with students experiencing declines of over £300 and almost £400, respectively. Manchester has remained stable at almost £300 above national average, partly contributing to its triumph in this year's index.
• Students in the historic university cities, such as Oxford, Edinburgh and Cambridge, rely most heavily on parents or family to fund their day-to-day activities. These students receive over £300 in additional support from parents or family which represents a 40% increase on the national average. Students in Manchester are more likely to take up holiday work, helping them boost their average monthly savings up to £163.40.

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• London overtakes Manchester to become the most fashion-forward city. Those studying in the capital spend £64.20 on average per month on clothes and fashion, almost double the national average of £32.60
• Oxford students top the table this year with a monthly spend on alcohol of £44.90. This is more than twice as much as students in Leicester, who were the lowest spenders on alcohol this year at an average of £18 per month.
• The South of England remains the most expensive place for alcoholic drinks in the UK, with the average expected price for a pint increasing by over a whole pound since 2019. Cambridge wins top spot for the highest-cost for a pint, at £5, which might go some way to explaining why students in Cambridge are choosing to spend their money elsewhere.
• Year-on-year costs of household bills have sharply decreased over the two years since 2018, with national averages falling from £45 to £24 in 2020.
• Students in York are benefitting the most from a reduction in the cost of household bills, enjoying expenses as low as £5.80 per month. This is over 10 times less than the cost for students in Aberdeen, who are spending £53.80 monthly, which is more than twice the national average.
• At a cost of £27 for a night out, students in London spend the most on average, with 30% of students spending above £20 each time they enjoy a night out. In contrast, 29% of London's students don’t go out in the capital at all.
• A takeaway in Manchester is the least expensive at £8.50, which is 17% less than the national average. Down South, students in Brighton and London spend the most on a takeaway at approximately £12, 15% above the national average.

*Data excludes those who do not drink

• Students have shifted towards more tech savvy methods of budgeting in 2020 with 60% of all students now using mobile apps to stay on top of their outgoings, overtaking Excel spreadsheets to be the most common budgeting method.
• Edinburgh and Cambridge students are the most committed to saving money, putting an additional 36% of their income away each month compared with the national average. This is over twice as much as students in Liverpool who save £55.50 on average each month.
• Over half of students in the UK will either transfer funds into a traditional bank savings account or an ISA when possible, while one in five students don't save anything at all.
• Across the UK, students feel little to no support from universities in managing their finances. 16% of students in Cambridge feel supported which is in contrast to less than 2% of students in Plymouth.
• Overall, the use of student discounts has decreased steadily from 2018 with 5% fewer students claiming to own union discount cards and almost 9% fewer students being offered NUS student cards.
• A third of all students surveyed find themselves running out of money before the end of the term, with those in Swansea and Poole having the most trouble, 56% and 49% respectively.

• For the fourth consecutive year, Oxbridge students top the table for time spent on academic study, with students in Cambridge edging top spot by studying for 136.4 hours each month. Students in Oxford are also amongst the most social, spending 38.2 hours doing so each month.
• However, students in the North East of England have overtaken students in Oxford for time spent socialising, with students in Durham socialising for 43.3 hours each month and becoming the most social in the UK. Students in Oxford and Newcastle are also spending the most money on alcohol each month.
• London's students rank bottom for time spent socialising, at 18.2 hours each month. Unsurprisingly, London's students also expect to spend the most on a night out at £27.30, which is 21% above national average.
• This year's index has revealed that 70% of all students do not spend any money on their academic studies. Where students are spending, they're spending slightly less than 2019. Monthly academic spend has lowered from £12 to £11 while monthly social spend has also fallen from £44 to £42, compared with last year.
• Students spend more time studying at campus locations than they do at their accommodation. Time spent studying on campus averaged out at 54.6 hours compared with 43.6 hours at home.
• 41% of students admit to finding their degree stressful but 44% state they are currently enjoying their studies.

• Overall, Edinburgh's students have the highest average monthly income in the UK at £267.80, with the lowest earning students being those in Portsmouth with £95.20.  Edinburgh students earn the most out of UK students from term-time work at an average of £182.80 a month. The lowest earnings for term-time work came from Durham at an average of £45.10, who were also among the most dependent on parental financial support.
• Holiday months are the most lucrative for Aberdeen students who earn an average of £134.40 a month, and least lucrative for students in Sheffield at an average of £25.30 monthly.
• Interestingly, the index found positive correlations between degree enjoyment and time spent socialising. Those that engage in no social activities rate their degree enjoyment as 13% less on average compared with students that socialise for more than nine hours each month.
• The study also found revealing correlations between degree enjoyment and the amount of part-time work taken up. Generally, those that are working for more than seven hours each month enjoy their degrees 10% less than those not working at all.

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• 27% of students feel that their university provides adequate mental health support, showing a slight improvement from the 2019 index. Universities have performed worse than last year when it comes to the affordability of their health and wellbeing programs, however, with 58% of students claiming they had access to affordable programmes. This is down 13% on last year's figure.
• Southampton leads the way here with 49% of participants agreeing their university provides adequate support for mental health. They're followed by Nottingham at 40% and Aberdeen at 38%.
• At the other end of the spectrum is Coventry, Poole and Swansea, whose students are least likely to say they’re offered affordable health and wellbeing programs – with just 46%, 39% and 38% respectively, saying these sorts of affordable programs are provided to them. Interestingly, these three cities all charted in the index top half, and above national average, for students feeling stressed by their degree studies.
• Over a quarter of Cambridge students (27%) feel they receive adequate support, compared to just 18% of their Oxford counterparts. Meanwhile, nearly a third (30%) of London's students feel they’re offered adequate mental health support.

• Nottingham performs strongly on sustainability compared with the rest of the country, earning a 50% approval rating from its students. Nottingham's approval rating is twice as high as the national average and 10% greater than the runner up university, Poole.
• At the other end, only 10% of students at Belfast feel their university is committed to promoting sustainability and this drops down to just 6% for Durham students.
• Nearly a third of students in Cambridge say their university actively promotes sustainability, compared to just 13% of students in Oxford.