One in five students at top universities consider dropping out over cost of living

theguardian.com:

One in five students at Russell Group universities are considering dropping out because of the cost of living crisis, and a quarter are regularly going without food and other essentials, theObserver can reveal.

In the largest study of its kind, new research by the Russell Group Students’ Unions – which represents 24 of Britain’s most elite higher education institutions, including Oxbridge, UCL and Edinburgh – for the first time lays bare the devastating impact soaring prices are having on all but the richest students.

More than half of those surveyed said their academic performance had suffered as a result of the cost of living crisis. Students reported having to take on additional paid work to cover costs, concentration issues caused by poor nourishment and financial stress, and skipping lectures because they couldn’t afford travel fares.

Researchers said unless urgent action is taken, the damage being done by the crisis could lead to universities being “only open to the most privileged” – undoing decades of progress on broadening higher education access.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, the Russell Group’s chief executive, condemned the “worrying” findings, which he expects to worsen, and called for the government to take urgent action in Wednesday’s budget by addressing “flaws in the maintenance loans system” and raising loans in line with inflation since 2020/21.

The group also called on the government to consider reintroducing maintenance grants for the most disadvantaged students and to review the parental threshold for maximum loan support, which has been frozen since 2008.

The survey of more than 8,500 students, carried out in the first two months of this year, found that the proportion of students who were considering dropping out