University students left with 50p a week after soaring rents

University students in England are left with about 50p a week to live on from their loans after paying for accommodation, the cost of which has soared by nearly 15% over the past two years, research has found.

- Sally Weale

Maintenance loans, which students take out on top of tuition fee loans to pay for living costs, are now almost entirely wiped out by rent, according to a report by the student accommodation charity Unipol and the Higher Education Policy Institute.

With the average annual student rent in England now £7,566 and the average maintenance loan expected to be £7,590 this year, the authors calculate that students are left with just £24 a year to cover living costs.

Even in the case of the maximum maintenance loan, which only the poorest students are entitled to, the proportion taken up by rent is still over three-quarters (76%) when it is generally accepted that no more than 30% of income should go on rent. In many cases students' parents are unable to help.