Next academic year, students are facing even more rises in prices. Travel has become more expensive, every day essentials have sky-rocketed in price, and bills have increased by almost 50% – and student loans don’t keep up. With these drastic changes in the cost of living, how will students be impacted?
Bills
Energy bills for the average person are on the rise, forecast by the BBC to increase by almost £700 this year.
The majority of bills in Sheffield students’ homes are covered by UniHomes, with the average ‘all bills included’ package (including fibre Wifi) being around £12-15 per week depending on house size. As of May 2022, this price has increased by 46% to £17-23 per week.
Further increases are to come in October, the BBC predicts.
Essentials/Basic Goods
The price of basic goods like bread, milk, butter and cheese have risen by approximately 26%.
In Asda, a loaf of bread in January was £1.49, and as of April 30th, it sat at £1.85. A pint of milk was £0.42, now its closer to £0.50. Butter in March that cost £2.10 now sits at around £2.65 (Office for National Statistics).
The average food shop for a two-person household was on average £25.68 in 2021, as of April 2022, this is looking more like £32.42.
Students are looking at spending an extra £5-10 on shopping for the basics each week – with the prices of things such as coffee, tea, milk alternatives, and imported foods increasing in some circumstances by almost 60%.
Travel
As of September 2021, the University of Sheffield enrolled upwards of 30,000 students. Of these 30,000, only a handful will be from Sheffield. This means that many students will travel to attend university. Most will live in university owned or private accommodation, and others may live local and commute. Regardless, increasing travel costs will have a knock-on effect on most students.
Globally, rising oil prices mean rates on fuel and public transport have risen. On average, fuel is now £1.50 per litre, which according to the RAC is a record high. Not only does this affect cars on the road, but also impacts train tickets, flight costs, ferries, and coaches.
Rail fairs across England and Wales (as of March 2022) have gone up by around 3.8%. This is said to be the biggest increase rail companies have seen in over a decade (The Guardian).
In 2019, direct trains from Sheffield to London were on average around £26.50 (East Midlands Railway), in 2021 this figure was around £31 (Rail Europe). Now, when looking at daily prices on the Trainline App, people could be expected to pay anywhere between £40 and £85 for a single. This will have a significant impact on the budget of many students looking to travel home over summer.
The alternative to traveling by rail is taking the Coach, but this can be off-putting for travellers as journeys become longer and provide less comfort. Prices here have risen by almost 10%, with the ticket price now averaging at around £19 (Omio).
The cost of travel for international students will be even more than that for those studying at home. For those wishing to travel home by air, they will be looking at a major expense for flights. A single economy flight to Japan is upwards of £1,000, 36% higher than this time two years ago (Bloomberg).
So far there is very little chance of increases in Student Loans to accommodate the rising prices, and along with changes to loan repayments as a result of the Augar review, this makes the future finances of less well-off students even more unclear.
Image Credits: NewsHub