Forgotten, isolated and ignored: the rise of the commuter student

Universities are failing to meet the needs of commuter students across the UK even though the number of students choosing to live at home is increasing.

A study conducted by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust in February 2018 highlighted that about 55.8 per cent of students under the age of 20 attend a university less than 57 miles from home, while only one in 10 students attends a university more than 150 miles away.

The report further highlighted that in 2014-15 (the first year of £9,000 fees), “over three quarters of the student body at the University of the West of Scotland (77.5 per cent) and Newman University (76.2 per cent) in Birmingham come from less than 91 km away and also live in their parental home”.

More than 50 per cent of undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Wolverhampton, Glasgow Caledonian University and City, University of London also commute to university, claimed the study.

In contrast to the aforementioned universities, however, “only 2 per cent of the student body at the Universities of Bath, Bristol, York and Exeter” live in their parental homes, while there are no reports of students “of this sort” who attended either the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge, the Sutton Trust report reveals. Read more