It’s interesting to see how debt is affecting student decisions on spending:
The fifth biennial Sodexo-Times Higher Education University Lifestyle Survey is the last to quiz students under the lower tuition fees regime – and it reveals some telling views on the changing nature of the sector. Worries about debt have fallen as the current cohort realise what a comparatively good deal they have, yet it is clear that the dire state of the economy is affecting lifestyle choices. However some things – such as the paltry time spent in the library – never change. Jack Grove reports
Financial considerations: impact of £9,000 annual tuition fees
A quarter of students (26 per cent) would not have gone to university if they had had to pay £9,000 tuition fees, the poll reveals.
Although higher fees have not stopped sixth-formers applying to university, according to January’s application figures, the Sodexo-THE survey shows that many current undergraduates would have baulked at the prospect of taking on greater levels of graduate debt.
However, more than two-fifths of students (41 per cent) said the tuition-fee hike would have made no difference to their choices.
Students from newer universities were far more likely to say they would not have undertaken a degree course if they had faced increased charges – 35 per cent said they would not, compared with 16 per cent of students at older institutions.
Medics were the least likely to reconsider their selection in light of higher fees – 60 per cent said they would not have chosen differently.
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