Students are still struggling to pay their bills with Generation Rent revealing hardship fund applications have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2022/23, hardship fund allocation levels were still 82% higher than pre-COVID levels for UK students.
That year, there were 38,484 applications compared to 28,517 in 2019/20.
Within this, Generation Rent found that ethnic minority students are struggling the most.
In the four years since 2019/20, 4% of students from ethnic minorities applied for hardship support compared to 1.8% of white students.
This is despite black, asian and mixed-race students making up 27% of all places at the six universities analysed.
According to Generation Rent, which has previously researched the impact a lack of affordable on-campus accommodation can have, the latest findings are “extremely concerning”.
Generation Rent added: “Students are facing high accommodation costs and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis – yet they do not have access to benefits, especially universal credit, which others are able to rely on.
“Students must not be excluded from funding and support – and black, asian and mixed-race students, who are experiencing the worst of these issues, cannot be abandoned, especially just when they are starting out their lives as independent adults."
