{"id":745647,"date":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/745647\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","slug":"more-students-planning-to-live-at-home-for-uni-over-insane-living-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/745647\/","title":{"rendered":"More students planning to live at home for uni over ‘insane’ living costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some students, it means a rethink about what university looks like.<\/p>\n

The Open University, which offers distance learning and online courses, says more teenagers than ever are starting courses with it.<\/p>\n

Almost 3,400 18-and 19-year-olds joined the university last year \u2013 making up 9.5% of new starters, compared with 5.7% six years ago.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, it has been popular with mature students wanting to continue working while studying from home.<\/p>\n

Its vice-chancellor, Prof Dave Phoenix, says it points to a shift in how younger people are thinking about university, adding that studying online “means they can avoid moving costs and high accommodation bills and, for others, it means keeping a job”.<\/p>\n

But a recent report, external<\/a> by Prof William Whyte, from the University of Oxford, argues that the value of on-campus life extends far beyond the price of accommodation, and plays an important role in personal development and the wider university experience.<\/p>\n

“The question isn’t simply where students live. It’s what they gain from living and learning together as part of a university community,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Currently, we have no real policy on accommodation for the overwhelming majority of students who want to leave home for study. It’s time for a serious debate about the role accommodation plays in the university \u2013 and how we will pay for it.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department for Education says the government recognises that too many students are facing financial hardship.<\/p>\n

They say they are increasing maximum maintenance loans and reintroducing maintenance grants<\/a> to help with living costs, as well as working with universities and councils to improve access to student housing. <\/p>\n

Data analysis by Isobel Cottam & Phil Leake. Additional reporting by Emily Doughty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For some students, it means a rethink about what university looks like. The Open University, which offers distance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-745647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}