University Students Face Increasing Difficulty’s Due To Student Loans and Rent.

As the year progresses in student life, many universities have sparked outrage due to the cost of accommodation for the bare minimum of safety and security. With some accommodations costing over £7000 a year to live in, it leaves many students with as little as £5 a week to live off due to maintenance loans being so unfair to many.

Maintenance loans in the United Kingdom are dependent on three things, when you started your course, where you live and household income. It is paid to students directly in three payments, mostly at the start of each semester. The three factors however leave most students short changed as it is expected that parents can top up the loan if students don’t get the maximum amount which is an average of £9978. Not only is this in some cases difficult for the parents, seen as the minimum someone could receive is £3698, but this has been proved impossible for some to live off as accommodations can be found outside cities meaning the weekly budget some set is gone just on transport. Many students have been forced to leave university or requesting an overdraft which is not an ideal solution to this problem.

On top of this hardship many students face, the actual accommodation they live in has caused an outrage due to the prices and what they get out of it. Students at Manchester university went on strike to demand rent decreases due to the terrible living conditions they were in that some said “looked like a prison.”Students also claim, “mice were running over feet” and eventually received a 30% rent rebate which was up to 4 Million pounds in value. This allowed for other students to speak up about their living conditions with a majority saying that along with infestations of silverfish they felt generally unsafe. With drunk students setting fire alarms off at early hours of the morning and students screaming repeatedly, just because they can. It leaves a lot of questions about the security that apparently patrols accommodations and what they are actually doing to create a safer environment to live in. In the second year of university studies students are encouraged to find private accommodation to ensure the new first year students have accommodation, this has proved difficult for many as rent prices soar every year and locals to the cities and towns become increasingly frustrated as houses get turned into student flats or houses leaving the young adults who chose not to go to university with no affordable living options.

What are your thoughts on this pressing issue?

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