(Image Credits: Layla Roberts)
As a student who is lucky enough to receive the maximum student loan and has a part-time job, I still struggle to afford the cost of York. And somehow we’re the most affordable city?
With rent averaging £190 a week for a University of York student (if you’re lucky), most of our finance automatically goes towards this expense. This equates to £9690 for 51 weeks, for those of you trying to do the mental math. With rent prices on the rise, students are struggling to keep up with demand.
A night out in York will set you back at least £25:£6 for a pint before the club, £6 club entry, £5 for transport roughly (depending on if you’re feeling fancy enough to splurge for an Uber or happy to lug it on the bus), and the rest of your money goes towards drinks in the club, which will set you back roughly £5 a drink. Obviously, I’m not counting wonderful Wednesday nights out, but that comes with queueing for over an hour to even get in.
I refuse to believe Canvas Student’s data is correct when they claim a pint is £4.24. In what economy will you find that? Maybe 10 years ago, if you’ve got a time machine.
How on earth are we rated most affordable when our neighbours further up north in Durham have it so much cheaper? Club entry? Free. Drinks? Student bars that will only charge you £2-£3 a pint. Free pool tables in their colleges, what do we have? Card machines. To be completely fair, the SU are fighting for us students and have recently lowered the prices in Glasshouse.
There are two other Universities on the podium for most affordable University city, taking the Silver medal is Leicester with the lowest average rent on the study, and taking the Bronze medal is Nottingham offering a relatively affordable cost of living for students. However, I still believe that York cannot be cheaper for students than these other cities.
Understandably, London was ranked the least affordable city for students, but there is no way York isn’t ranked shortly after, just based on our rent demands. I love being a student at York, but my bank balance most definitely doesn’t.