Students in Northern Ireland are living on as little as £29.30 a week due to the cost of accommodation, a new report has found.
The average annual cost for purpose-built student accommodation in Northern Ireland is £5,256 for a 40-week term, or 81 per cent of the maximum amount students can receive under student loans.
The average the maintenance package for students from Northern Ireland is approximately £4,900. Postgraduate students in Northern Ireland are not entitled to any maintenance support.
The findings form part of the Accommodation Costs Survey 2021/22, a survey of university, private and charitable providers of purpose-built student accommodation in the UK, to explore rental costs, stock provision and the outlook of the sector.
The figures were compiled by tody by student housing charity Unipol and the National Union of Students (NUS).
The respondents cover 473,684 purpose-built rooms which equate to an estimated 68 per cent of the university accommodation market.
Students in university accommodation were charged an average of £4,565 for the academic year, or 71 per cent of the maximum student finance allowance.
Northern Ireland has typically relied on university-owned accommodation and the private rental sector to provide homes for students, but there has been a recent move to attract more private sector providers to meet an increase in demand.
In a press statement, NUS-USI President Ellen Fearon said: “These figures starkly demonstrate the significant financial pressures students are facing. When so much of student finance, in many cases 100 per cent of a student’s loan or grant, is going straight into rent payments, we have to ask who benefits from these policy decisions – the student or the private property developer?
She also called on political leaders to do more to remedy the issue, including supporting a Student Renters Bill: “Many of our politicians see attracting more private providers as the answer to all our problems, but this report demonstrates that this could not be further from the case. We need to see more imagination from our leaders and a commitment to providing homes which the ordinary student can actually afford to live in.”
“Students need to be guaranteed safe, affordable, good quality accommodation while they complete their studies. Anything less creates an education system where only the wealthy have the chance to thrive. We need to see a Student Renters Bill introduced which guarantees students this basic right.”
Martin Blakey, Chief Executive at Unipol added: “The survey highlights the fundamental shifts in the market with the private sector taking on many responsibilities of universities … Build costs and construction inflation are not going away, but there is a need for new development.”
“In order that all students can access accommodation, the sector now needs to consider targeting financial support at students who need it, to maintain accessibility and affordability”, Blakely said.
NUS-USI was established in 1972 under a unique arrangement where both the British and Irish national student unions, UNS and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) respectively, jointly organised in Northern Ireland to promote student unity.
