Students are fundamentally not commodities, yet the UK's higher education system increasingly treats them as such. Behind record-breaking enrolment figures lies a harsher reality in which students are being pushed into survival mode by rising living costs, support services struggling to cope with demand, and a university model that prioritises institutional income over student wellbeing. This is epitomised by the growing presence of student food banks on campuses across the country.

As someone who works in one of these food banks, I see the consequences of this deeply unequal system daily. Students, many of whom are juggling the complexities of studies, part-time work, and financial pressures, are relying on emergency food support as a routine part of staying afloat. These services are undoubtedly vital for student survival, but their very existence signals a systemic failure.

Higher education is, in effect, a public service, and it is reflecting the same symptom that NHS and social care are facing with lacking investment, and those on the frontline operating with reduced capacity. In recent years, Universities have expanded student numbers at unprecedented rates yet support structures have not kept pace. Pastoral care and welfare services remain stretched to breaking point, as they simply lack the funding that is required to meet the ever-growing demand. This disconnect between growth and support are reflective of a system that cares more for economic expansion than student welfare. However it is important to note that these institutions remain heavily constrained by external limitations of what they can and cannot do.

Rising rents, and food prices have hit students harder than most. Unlike other groups, students often lack stable income, and entering the job market has become much harder for young people. 16.1% of people aged 16 to 24 cannot find work, compared to a national unemployment figure of 4.9% with graduates describing the job search as “soul-destroying”.

This is exacerbated by the fact that maintenance loans and grants have not kept pace with rent, making higher education increasingly inaccessible, and those who do attend are often left relying on support services such as university food banks and mental health provision just to get by.

International students are particularly vulnerable. They arrive with high hopes only to find that the reality often doesn't match expectations of life in the UK. Soaring rents, limited work opportunities, and visa restrictions make financial stability precarious, and many are forced to weigh the emotional and academic cost of leaving against the financial impossibility of staying when confronted with unemployment and instability. 

Recent visa changes have compounded this further, with the vast majority of international students now unable to bring family members to the UK, thereby removing a crucial source of emotional and practical support and intensifying feelings of isolation through enforced separation. This is exacerbated by the financial barriers students face when simply trying to access their own money, with high transaction fees, unfavourable exchange rates, and banking restrictions frequently delaying transfers and pushing students into financial crisis through circumstances entirely beyond their control. For international students already struggling, many feel unsure of or distrustful towards western support services, leaving some of the most vulnerable without effective help as they navigate systems that differ significantly from those they have known at home.

These pressures are reflected in the declining number of international students choosing to come to the UK, driven largely by visa restrictions. Institutions have long relied on the influx of international students as a source of income, in a sense rendering them a commodity, since enrolment has increasingly become something to be sought after simply to keep institutions afloat. But it is this commodification that completely negates the human reality for many international students, as outlined above. Reliance on expanding student intake is not a viable long-term solution; admitting more students than the system can support only exacerbates the pressures described here.

More broadly, for home and international students alike, the cost-of-living crisis is reshaping the student experience, undermining academic performance, and eroding the civic purpose of higher education. A society that forces its students into food banks is a society failing its future.

Higher education clearly faces a money problem. Recent government announcements, including inflation-linked increases to maintenance loans and the reintroduction of targeted maintenance grants are welcome steps. They signal recognition that the current system is unsustainable, yet they remain insubstantial in the face of systemic barriers.

A radical overhaul of how higher education is funded is urgently required. If universities are to function as genuine public institutions, the state must move towards direct funding, recognising the civic and social value of higher education beyond its economic status as a force for social cohesion and long-term development. If not from the state, alternative revenue streams, diversified research funding or carefully constructed private partnership might offer an alternative funding stream, but these must ensure university’s true educational purpose is protected.

While tuition fees are often placed at the fore of higher education debates, without subsequent reforms to housing, welfare, and university governance, these steps will not deliver meaningful change.

Once a sustainable funding model has been found, to operate as true civic institutions, universities must re-centre the needs of students with:

• Investment in support services, including mental health provision, welfare teams, and food security initiatives.
• Rent regulation, ensuring students are not priced out of their own education.
• Expanded bursaries through state funding to reduce the reliance on debt-heavy loans that disproportionately burden low-income and international students.

These changes are rooted in strengthening democratic health. It's only when students are supported as individuals that higher education can fulfil its civic mission. The recent cost-of-living crisis and post covid landscape has exposed the fragility of a higher education system built on market logic.

Without meaningful reform, these changes remain idealised rather than truly student-centred. Embodying this in practice ensures that support services are no longer an afterthought, but the foundation of a higher education system that truly serves its student body.

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