‘Something deeply wrong’ students using foodbanks at higher rates than general population
The National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland has responded to the findings of the Scottish Government commissioned Student Finance and Wellbeing Study 2023/24 published earlier this morning.
NUS has expressed concern at the findings which demonstrate high rates of financial hardship amongst students in Scotland, and has called for greater financial support for students, as well as measures to bring housing and travel costs down.
Commenting, NUS Scotland President Sai Shraddha S. Viswanathan said:
‘This study shows that students are struggling in a system stacked against them. It demonstrates clearly that the level of financial support available to students is inadequate to cover the cost of living. This is particularly true for colleges students and students from underrepresented backgrounds who on average are more than £4000 short of what they need to survive.
This is why it was extremely worrying and disheartening to see no uplift in student support announced in the Scottish Government’s draft budget last week, with students instead seeing an unjustifiable 3.2% real terms cut.
Rent is too high. Public transport is unaffordable. A majority of full-time students are having to juggle work on top of their studies and are still struggling. When students are using foodbanks at rates more than double or triple the general population something is deeply wrong.
Student respondents in this research called for greater financial support without added debt, for help with the cost of housing, for free bus travel for all students. The government must start listening.’
