Student living costs in the UK 2023

The student budget is a tricky thing to pin down. But our latest National Student Money Survey reveals where students' money goes once and for all...

Credit: Yevgen Kravchenko, kamui29, Bell Photography 423 – Shutterstock

We all know that student living can be a pricey business. But, how pricey is it exactly?

Rather than taking wild guesses, we can tell you what your expected living costs are, based on what thousands of other students are telling us.

Whether you're wanting to budget your monthly expenses, or simply see how your spending compares to the average student, we've got all the stats on student living costs that you need.

Average student living costs

In our latest annual National Student Money Survey, we asked over 2,000 students where their money goes. The results were very interesting.

The average student's living costs are about £924 a month, but our findings reveal that Maintenance Loans often fall far short of covering students' living expenses.

It's probably no surprise that rent takes the biggest chunk out of the student budget. Despite the overall cost of living for students increasing, rent dropped to £418. This is a £3 decrease from 2021, but the long-term trend is still one of growth.

Groceries are the second biggest expenditure for students, coming in at £116 a month. This might seem like a lot, but it breaks down to around £27 a week – not too bad for a weekly food shop. Nonetheless, to cut down the costs of groceries further, check out our guide to saving money on food or even try our weekly meal plan.

Everyone knows that students love a good party, and it turns out £59 a month is spent on going out. Some might be surprised that this is more than three times the amount students spend on course materials. However, with tuition fees at such a high rate, there's increasing pressure on unis to keep extra course costs to a minimum.

Students also estimate they spend £64 a month on bills, which include gas, electricity, water, broadband and a TV Licence. Our complete guide to student bills has step-by-step advice on how to set up, switch, split bills, and we also have guidance on help with energy bills during these testing times.

Student living costs across the UK

Source: National Student Money Survey 2022

As the graphic above demonstrates, the most expensive places to live as a student in the UK can be found in the South and East of England.

London is by far the most expensive region, well over £100 a month more expensive than any other area of the country. This will be partly thanks to the cost of rent in London, which often dwarves the amount you'd pay for an equivalent property elsewhere.

And things are similarly pricey at the opposite end of the UK, too. The cost of living in Scotland isn't far off what students are paying in the South East of England – another notoriously expensive place to live.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland, the Midlands and the North East of England are comfortably the cheapest regions in the UK.

But it's worth noting that in this year's survey, student living costs exceed £800 a month in every part of the country. This is in stark contrast to 2021's results, where 10 of the 12 regions fell below this mark.

Which students spend the most?

Only two of the universities in the top 10 for total spending (excluding rent) are based in London – Greenwich and London Metropolitan.

Two Scottish universities made the top 10, with Edinburgh's own Heriot-Watt University ranking 7th and Abertay Dundee in 10th place.

The very lowest spenders are those at the University of Law, which turned out to be the only university with students spending less than £200 a month on all expenses excluding rent. Kingston, St Andrews, Lincoln and the University College Birmingham all came in at £250 or less.

At some unis, the average cost of bills seems very low (£2 at Lancaster, for example) – but bear in mind that these figures are averages. A lot of students' utilities will be included in their rent, so they would likely have reported that their bills cost £0.

The table below lists all universities and the average that students spend on living costs, after rent. How do you compare to your classmates?

The data has been filtered to exclude universities where there were not enough respondents, or where the results included significant outliers.

Is the Maintenance Loan enough?

Source: National Student Money Survey 2022

It's all very well working out how much students spend each month. But the big question is, how do they pay for it?

The majority of students will be eligible for some form of Maintenance Loan to cover their living costs at university. However, most students report that it doesn't stretch far enough. The average student receives just £485 a month from their Maintenance Loan, which falls £439 a month short of covering the average living costs (£924 a month).

In fact, 66% believe the Maintenance Loan isn't big enough.

Students told us:

• [The] cost of living has increased and the loan doesn't cover it anymore.
• I get the lowest possible amount [because] my dad is a high earner. However, he is very stingy with money. My loan doesn't cover my rent.
• My Maintenance Loan doesn't cover rent, let alone other expenses such as bills and food etc.

Almost two-thirds of students (59%) turn to their parents for extra funds, with students getting an average of £149.80 a month from their mums and dads.

But, fewer students than last year are relying on money from their parents. Many are turning to ways to make money from home, and the proportion of students getting a part-time job dropped from 66% in 2021 to 62% in 2022.

Some students turned to less conventional ways to fund themselves during university – from stocks and shares (5%) and social media (4%) to sex work (3%) and NFTs (1%).

It's clear that the Maintenance Loan isn't enough to cover living costs for the vast majority of students. The government needs to make some serious changes to Student Finance in order to fix this.

To make your Maintenance Loan last longer, check out our guide to budgeting at university.