Supporting Students in a Cost of Living Crisis: What Are UK Providers Doing?
The cost-of-living crisis is hitting students hard. While inflation rises, the amount of maintenance loan that students are entitled is failing to keep up.
Disadvantaged students or those with dependents, who were just getting by before, are now at high-risk; the Institute of Fiscal Studies warns that students from the poorest families will lose £100 per month in maintenance support. To make matters worse, government support packages to help mitigate the crisis, such as the £400 energy bill grant and £650 package for benefits-recipients, largely exclude students.
For those working in student support services, this presents a monumental challenge; wellbeing support and financial teams are being met with greater demand for their services while widening participation professionals face new challenges in improving engagement, attainment and outcomes for disadvantaged students amidst the crisis.
Increasing the amount of money available to students in the form of hardship funds is one way to support students through this time. However, this isn’t always possible, with institutions themselves under increasing pressure to fund their services, spaces and resources as energy bills rise.
There’s also the question of how to invest money most effectively to make sure that it’s reaching the students who need it most. For this reason, providers should choose to implement a variety of interventions that cover reallocating resources as well as additional financial support models.
In this climate, sharing practice insights from across the sector is key. This blog article highlights four examples from across the sector of institutions delivering effective interventions to support students in the cost-of-living crisis.
Targeted Hardship Funding Interventions
No amount of budgeting can account for the unexpected costs a student might face.
Institutions across the sector are increasing their emergency hardship funding to support students through financially difficult moments. These interventions are both small and large in scale:
The University of Birmingham’s Guild of Students are delivering a Graduation Hardship Fund, which offers awards for gown hire and photography, with a maximum award of £75 available.
The University of Manchester are providing one-off cost-of-living payments to all students.
The University of Sheffield are increasing funding for postgraduate students by 10% in addition to a grant of £150 to encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities and enhanced bursaries for underprivileged students.
The University of Leeds announced extra and an increased Financial Assistance Fund to support staff, students and postgraduate researchers.
Targeting students facing a specific financial concern is an effective way to ensure that the additional money you are offering supports students who need it most.
The fact that Birmingham’s initiative comes from the university’s Student Union is also instructive. The Guild were clearly able to identify that anxiety around the cost of graduation was a concern among students and, in response, propose a solution.
When developing your approach to providing additional financial support, always collaborate with your students, whether that is through using student feedback cycles or speaking to student representatives. By co-designing your interventions, you increase the chance that your work is supporting students in areas where they feel most in need. You will also be able to identify the unique areas in which your students need support.
Supporting Student Progression
Several institutions have released statements outlining the various ways they intend to support students through the cost-of-living crisis. Many of these include providing 14-hour heated study spaces, subsidised food on campus and increasing the financial support available through hardship funds.
You might consider some of the following steps:
Removing any financial barriers to progression. The University of Essex’s action plan includes a decision to scrap resit fees is an effective measure to ensure students from low income backgrounds or those experiencing financial hardship are able to progress despite the crisis.
Adapting assessment models to be more flexible and inclusive. This might include open-book or take-home exams, which would be more accessible to students with paid work commitments, disabilities or caring responsibilities.
Clearly communicating and expanding the requirements for mitigating circumstances or extensions. During the pandemic, the University of Westminster introduced the option for students to self-certify for their absence via the Student Hub, which made the process smoother and more accessible.
Working to bridge skills and knowledge gaps that students with different circumstances might face, such as disruption to education caused by COVID-19. You might introduce study skills modules, like the University of Bristol, or consider pre-arrival and continuation academic questionnaires to identify gaps and design modules accordingly.
By removing barriers to progression, be they financial or skills-based, you create an environment in which all students can flourish. Not only will this help to support those students who are suffering financial hardship during the cost-of-living crisis, and the academic and wellbeing hardships that come with it; it will also enhance the student experience for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.
Communicating Additional Support
Providers across the sector have developed online ‘hubs’ with guidance for students facing the cost-of-living crisis. There is a wealth of examples that highlight steps institutions are taking, which could be repurposed across the sector:
The University of Nottingham have organised their resources into helpful categories, such as Financial Support, Earn While You Learn and Keeping Costs Down.
Queen’s University Belfast update their hub regularly and offer resources covering a broad range of issues, including how students can get regular exercise and protect themselves from financial scams during the cost-of-living crisis.
The University of Leeds’ hub operates an FAQ-style approach, so students can easily navigate the page and find solutions to their concerns.
The University of Manchester’s student support services signpost their ‘Cosy Campus’ spaces, which include provisions such as hot water, washing up facilities, microwaves and central heating.
The key thing to remember is that communicating the extra measures you are providing is crucial. Without effective signposting, the additional support you have point in place is no good; students need to know about it in order to take advantage of it.
Make sure to include links to your hub on other pages on your website that students in financial hardship are likely to visit, such as Fees & Finance, Mental Wellbeing and Careers Advice pages.
Supporting Financial Stability, Safety and Wellbeing
Perhaps one of the least discussed yet most important aspects of the cost-of-living crisis is how to keep students safe during this time. ‘Safety’ in this sense refers not only to their physical wellbeing but also their mental health and their financial stability.
The University of Manchester’s Safe Taxi Scheme provides a free taxi service for students to get home safely, even if they are struggling financially, by partnering with local taxi firm, Street Cars.
The scheme is simple to use: students order a taxi from the firm, quoting their Student ID number. They then ask for a receipt at the end of their journey that will be exchanged for payment at the SU.
But how to protect students’ financial safety There are concerns that scammers might take advantage of fears over the cost-of-living crisis, and students are certainly not exempt from this.
Queen’s University Belfast recognises this and, in response, provide dedicated information in their cost-of-living hub. The page directs students to a wealth of guidance, including advice for international students, a partnership with Blackbullion that endeavours to build financial literacy and links to external resources such as Money Mules content.
Sharing practice insights in challenging times
As the crisis presents a huge challenge for the sector, sharing practice insights becomes more important than ever. The examples in this blog article have highlighted the many ways practitioners are innovating their provision of student services and support.
To explore further ways to deliver effective interventions in the cost-of-living crisis, keep up to date with the latest HE Professional content by signing up for our free weekly round up.
