Are we entering an era of students mainly picking a local uni and commuting?

[mids2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/sep/13/rise-of-student-commuters-costs-living-at-home-or-in-halls

With the expense of student loans and general cost of living pressures coupled with exponentially increasing IT impact are we now going into be in a position of students maybe by default choosing a local university.

My concern would be maybe more academic kids from poorer backgrounds maybe going for a local option rather than going for maybe a better HEI which is more distant. Obviously Oxbridge may offer cheap accommodation but the students going there are from predominantly middle class backgrounds with parents I would hazard a guess maybe would be able to support their children anyway.. I think the problem will be with other Russell group institutions including London unis, Durham, Bristol, Edinburgh etx. where there may be some distance to travel.

Is this commuting student model really a good thing?

This will be the same for my DD in a couple of years, hopefully. We have 3 universities that would offer suitable courses for her and be commutable by public transport, 2 by bus which is free for Scottish teenagers. She isn't particularly bothered about living in halls so if we can manage to cover her living expenses without needing a student loan it makes sense to do so.

My youngest and her friends have all gone local. (We do have several really good universities in our city though). They spent the first year living at home and have now moved into halls for the second year. I think they're planning on renting a flat for third year. It was too expensive for them to go further afield.

like one of the other posters, i have to commute or not go. though its only a short commute, which is a bit of a blessing. for those who dont feel its worth it, im in my mid twenties, completely trollied my gcses, and have now managed to get a BTEC level 2, at PM, a BTEC level 3 at DMM and am taking level 4 so the last unit of this whilst also studying my level 5 (HNC). so dont write it off. im looking at DMU, does anyone have any insights?

I did not want my kids to live at home. It’s incredibly important to me that they move away and have their independence so have strongly encouraged them to avoid London unis. The only kids I know who have stayed at home and commuted at under Grad level have been those with significant additional needs who wouldn’t manage living away.

post grad/ law school is a different matter all together and most live at home and commuted

@Brummiecurlz173 To study what?

No. More are but its not the norm. I'm sure the Guardian would like to think so. The point will arise when like before, uni becomes more selective. Not all kids are the right fit for university. And they don't need the debt for a low wage job. Trouble is we've now got so many average unis, they don't want to close so will go on accepting students to keep money coming in. Commuting students or not.

That's great if you can afford it. Many people carnt and the only way they can attend uni is by living at home.

I remember this being discussed about 20 years ago. At the time, it was suggested that students in other countries did normally live at home and attend their local university. This was particularly mentioned in respect of France, but there might have been some funding aspect and I seem to recall that it was said that universities there had to admit eligible students, I’m not sure about that.

@MargaretThursday and now Uclan is just Uni of Lancashire !

We are Manchester and have a plethora of commutable unis. If my Dc want that I won’t push to move away due to £ benefits longer term

Is it?

Never understood why they didn't simply go for Preston University. Unless maybe they were hoping mixed them up with Lancaster University.

My daughter is taking a planned year out before starting a paramedic course next year. She's choosing to study at our local University fir several reasons. She has part time work that she can be flexible with, a lovely serious boyfriend and her little dog that she doesn't want to leave. Basically she gas a nice life set up and doesn't feel the need to study away from home. She does also have the option of studying near her dad and lodging for free, but wants to stay bear home and that's unlikely to change.

This.

Our "local" university does not offer any physical engineering degrees. The closest uni ds could have attended is about 75 minutes commute away, and a train season ticket costs exactly the same price as a halls room.

I do think students will look much more closely at costs and quality of life while studying. DS discounted London, the Midlands and a couple of HEIs in the west country because of their ludicrous accomodation costs. He dislikes London & Birmingham anyway so didn't see this as any problem.

I know that many students from Fife have been choosing more local unis and commuting from home.

It used to be that most students would stay in student accommodation in Edinburgh and would attend Edinburgh or Heriot-Watt. A few went to St Andrews. In those days, girls doing PE went to Dunfermline College in Edinburgh; boys went to Jordanhill in Glasgow. Those wanting to teach in primary mainly did their B.Ed. at Moray House in Edinburgh, and lived in Edinburgh.

Most of the pupils from the Fife school that I attended went to Edinburgh in the '70s; I was one of the exceptions who went to Glasgow. One of the maths students went to St Andrews, I recall. We all stayed in halls at the beginning and later moved to flat shares.

When I did my P.G.C.E.,I did think of commuting to Moray House but got a letter back from them advising that the only lecturer taking the language that I studied had just retired and that I should apply to Jordanhill in Glasgow.

The rising cost of accommodation plus an influx of students from elsewhere means that Fife kids are now more likely to commute to Napier, Queen Margaret or possibly Stirling, Dundee or Abertay, though there are still some who attend Edinburgh or Glasgow.

2 or 3 years ago, I did a couple of evening classes at St Andrews and I don't recall hearing any local accents.

@julesagain Studying a health related vocational subject is entirely different though. It’s not the same as economics or maths where employment is down to dc to source. A local uni might offer neither of these courses. A health related course is usually going to lead to nhs employment, and until recently, was not a degree at all. If dc study History or MFLs they really do need to look beyond the local ex poly or ex HE college.

When I was looking at universities for myself, I drew an arc 5 hours away from home. That gave Swansea Cardiff, Bath, Bristol, Exeter & Southampton. Not much has really changed since then if you're in Cornwall. Exeter is still 2-3 hours away.

@HewasH2O It’s 1 hour from where we go in Cornwall. Loads of new roads now! There’s even a train!

Not read the thread but would only see this as a good thing. The graduates at work are limited to only a few universities. It would encourage more universities to put the courses on so the profession is not dominated in its thinking or could drive apprenticeships type training locally as it was previously.

Also has the potential for more people to build there lives in the locality they belong to. Forging a greater sense of community and place. Maybe reducing the need for government support as families are isolated and bringing back the “village” that we were supposed to live in in the first place.

prepared for lots who have done the opposite to disagree but of the many societal changes recently I can only see this as a good thing.

The university local to us Northampton, the next ones I think are Cambridge and Leicester which are not really easily commutable anyway. They are 3 vastly different universities though, one right at the top, one near the bottom and one fairly reasonable one.

@ThunderThunderThunderThunderCats

You say it was too expensive for them to go further afield but also say they did halls in 2nd year and planning on moving into a flat for 3rd year - so surely they are incurring the same expenses that they would’ve incurred if they were moving further away?

@JenniElection That is nonsense - bring back a village and community by bright dc staying local at crap uni with crap courses they don’t want? Why would anyone do this? It’s ok if you are in Leeds, Manchester or even Exeter but many dc are not. My DDs would have no work where we live. Just not possible so this harking back to a golden age of “the village” is for the birds in terms of education and work. What work ?

Can see all that it’s just my opinion. See families stuck in location miles away from home all S&Gs until kids come along then there massively disadvantaged from the ones who are local.

like I said I know lots/ most will disagree

Our DC all wanted to go away and we fully supported them
In Scotland so no tuition fees, we paid their rent and 500 on top a month as well as phones and basic clothes, so no loans

We did postpone our retirement date

No regrets

I think it’s a shame when these choices are dictated by money

I am sure it suits some to commute to Uni , but it is a completely different experience and not what I wanted for my DC

I'm on the border of Cornwall by Plymouth and it's still an hour's drive to Exeter city centre for me! Add at least 1.5hrs to that if you're in Penzance, still more if you're in St Just or Sennen.

Most of Cornwall is way over an hour from Exeter and they've just cancelled a shit load of the regular trains due to staffing issues.

“Poorer children will be more likely to have a full maintenance loan”

often meaning poorer children leave with £80K+ debt. Its not free money, is it