As a focus point, Hall zooms in on ‘unprecedent rent rises’, claiming that they have averaged at an 8% increase; a desperately disproportionate figure when aligned with the student maintenance loan that those attending university can receive.
She is not wrong to unify horrifying rent prices with depression amongst students. Starting my first year in September 2021, I signed into a flat in Park View student accommodation, agreeing to pay £144 a week. Now, in my third year, I would be forced to pay £164.50 a week for the same accommodation. That is just over a 14% increase in the mere two years I have been a student at Newcastle University. Quite a staggering figure when you also account for the rise in food prices that students must also finance for themselves.
It is fair to say that the cost-of-living crisis has negatively impacted students’ mental health, but this is an economic emergency that has affected a nation rather than one specific group. The question remains, why are students so at risk? It is fair to assume that young people attending university may have never handled their own finances before, thus their inexperience at budgeting may lead them to overspend and resort to living off beans and toast for the last two weeks of term.
Nonetheless, another illustration of students’ susceptibility comes from a publication in Universities UK. Here it is outlined that ‘record proportions of the most disadvantaged students began a full-time undergraduate course in 2000’. The link is clear; those who were already more vulnerable have now become subject to student financial pressures, hence the rise in rates of student depression.
The research paper additionally identified an increase in anxiety and depression amongst students who undertook paid work during term time. The cycle continues. More disadvantaged students are attending university. They become anxious about finances as the cost-of-living crisis has affected them more. They decide to get a job to pay their way through university, but this only worsens their mental health, undoubtedly because balancing work and studies in incredibly challenging.
So where does this leave us? It is clear that students are left alone to navigate this crisis when they hardly know what colours are safe to put in the wash together. Surely society would benefit from their 18–22-year-olds being happy whilst obtaining their degree? After all, it is us who are the future of tomorrow.
