Making ends meet: student incomes and debt

This article seeks to explore the ways in which the current financial regime for supporting students impacts on the choices they make while studying for their first degree. It focuses particularly on the financial choices students make (or feel forced to make) in relation to work, debt and economising. It argues that the degree of discretion that students have is crucially related to the financial support they receive from their parents. However, even where parents are generous, most students seek an additional source of income to increase their autonomy in spending decisions. Parental attitudes are found to be important determinants of the ordering of drawing on other income. There is found to be a financially vulnerable group of students whose fragile financial position largely results from their parents being unable to offer much financial support; this group in particular finds their time at university characterised by considerable amounts of paid work and increasing debt.