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?

Nobody is saying settle for a bottom uni, there are good unis all over the uk which many can and do commute to.

Living at home doesn’t mean you don’t have life experience, quite the reverse. My dd seems to have buckets more than the people she’s meeting at uni who have left very cloistered schools ( with quite a few with friends from school) to cloistered halls of residence. She has more life and volunteering experience(some hugely challenging)than most.

People aren’t living at home for washing,what a silly suggestion. It’s for all sorts of reasons. Employers aren’t interest in where you put your head at night but on what experiences, jobs , projects etc are on your cv which is very much evidenced by the recruiter who posted below.

The world is changing, many sensible students want as little debt as possible. Rents are rising and accommodation increasingly hard to get. Students don’t all have wealthy parents contributing and reducing what they need to borrow. Not being in the accommodation rat race with my last child whilst seeing the stress of parents desperately trying to find affordable accommodation for their child after results day has really highlighted this for me.

I don't even know where to begin with this.
Lots of young people go to their local university but live away from home. DD had friends she shared with but who were local. Does this mean you would discriminate against someone who stayed home because they were a carer, for example?

Not moving away for university doesn't necessarily mean that the student can't cut the apron strings or isn't ready to fly the nest. You have also overlooked that moving away isn't financially doable for many students, then you get certain cultures who won'tallow their DC to move away.

You view clearly comes from a very privileged background. You need to broaden your horizons.

When employers are looking at CVs they are looking at grades, past employment, references. They will also notice on the CV If the young person was also undertaking caring within the family while at uni, this will show how resilient they are. Also most university students who live at home contribute to the family finances, they are not living of the bank of mum and dad paying for accomodation, nights out etc .

@Poppinpoppinpopcorn I can honestly say my DH as an employer would not be interested in some of those. A young carer would be a red flag. Too much going on in their lives. Not sure if anyone would declare this anyway.

Past employment can help but relevant work experience is better if it’s a technical job. You want competences met and degree holders don’t always have sufficient basic skills. So many employers test prospective employees. Students who have worked, done vacation work experience, run clubs, been actively engaged at uni are often resilient. We didn’t want family angst if possible.

Students living at home are not better than other students and some students get the full loan so why are they living off bank of mum and dad at uni? Even decades ago, the grant system expected parents to pay so why are parents paying demonised? How odd. It’s an expectation. The ones who live at home haven’t provided that house! They are 100% living off the work their parents put in to get it. And if they don’t take the loan, where is the financial contribution to parents coming from? Many parents charge nothing.

And who on earth judges if dc want a night out? Students stay at home with mates precisely to go out and not disturb their social life. They don’t fall far from the tree or have much intention of moving on because life is cushy and cosy.

You are the person who has obviously not known a student living at home. Just for information I know a huge amount of young carers in college, uni and in the place of work. None of them have had trouble finding work fact it is seen as an incentive for employers because they have hard working, punctual and get the job done because they have got used to caring for family members from very often childhood. Young carers have far more than just basic skills, also do work experience alongside getting a degree. Quite frankly your views and ridiculous and outdated. I also think you missed the point that students living at home contribute financially to the home, they are not spoon fed or have a cushy life. You need to get out your bubble.

A young carer would be a red flag?

I sincerely hope that's not true. It would potentially be discrimination by association, under the Equality Act.

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/work-and-career/protecting-yourself-from-discrimination/

Well said.

DH used to emply engineering graduates. He was involved with the the local (RG) university and the teaching company scheme.

He didn't hold ridiculous, preconceived and outdated ideas like @MeetMeOnTheCorner and her DH does. He just employed graduates that showed promise and were good at their jobs.

Some of them became friends who we are still in touch with over 40 years later.

Overlooking students who live at home isn’t going to result in a diverse workforce. I know from DD’s friends and just observing at
Preston railway station there’s a huge amount of female muslim students commuting to universities all across the NW, they have uniforms or lanyards indicating where they study. They shouldn’t be penalised if they have chosen to commute due to financial or cultural reasons.

@Moreholidaysthanjudithchalmers Do you think SMEs are that bothered about a diverse workforce? Large ones yes, but many smaller companies simply want the best person for the job and no dramas. If the person does very well at the tests, interviews well and writes English without numerous errors, then where they went to uni doesn’t matter so much. If a company wants students from elite unis and has ultra high standards for grads, local one might not suffice. Where we live, the local one would be just about useless for civil engineers going into a consultant engineering company, so wanting much higher calibre people means the grads haven’t stayed at home.

Duversity is also a local/central government, NHS and public body thing. Other employers have a different viewpoint.

Yes. A lot of these families don't want their daughters to go away to university. I have read a lot about this on The Student Room - threads from muslim girls who feel trapped because they have to stay at home and commute to the nearest university.

@RampantIvy I have to say it’s limiting for them. It’s controlling. I don’t like to see it.

I just want to reassure new students and parents and people looking for next year please don't let attitudes on here put you off commuting. The university's themselves offer support for everyone commuting, it's not seen as lesser at all. People who commute to university have the same chance at jobs as any other student. They look at the person as a whole, not whether they commuted or not. Some comments on here are very outdated. 30% of students commute now, it's not unusual and is very well supported. Everybody's different and thankfully people see that now except for a few outdated comments.

Well said.

A young carer would be a red flag. Too much going on in their lives. Not sure if anyone would declare this anyway.

Wowzers. My young carer has just started at an RG uni 6 hours away from home. He received a contextual offer because he’s a young carer.

@CatkinToadflax What’s that got to do with anything? I’m talking about students living at home! How can they be a carer 6 hours away? It’s caring for hours in the home, as essentially a job, and working in a full time job for an employer at the same time that’s the big conflict. 6 hours away - they’re not caring are they? So I assume they are released from caring duties? Completely different.

Ok I'm pulling my hair out now. The university has recognised this student has been a young carer and the hard work that goes into that while studying in school and college and has been awarded a contextual offer because of that. Young carers and carers in general in your home is not full time as you suggest. I suggest you go away and get a clue

@Poppinpoppinpopcorn thank you!

Sorry but this post is a bit silly. Just because you live at home doesn’t mean you don’t go to a good uni. My DC’s is a Russell group uni with a big and successful outreach programme designed to attract local students. They have been hugely encouraging. All the “elite” unis as you put it have to run outreach programmes .For some young people going to a local uni is the difference between going to uni or not.

Re civil engineering there are 59 unis that offer it, plenty for many students to find one near enough to commute. So not sure what your point is there .

Most private large UK firms and US firms operating in the UK maintain structured diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) schemes and support systems, driven largely by UK legal requirements

Shitty life circumstances, ND, disability, low finances, caring responsibilities and many other reasons for studying at home are in no way “dramas” and give good grounding in resilience. The many dramas that occur in halls of residence, not so much.

Just because you live at home doesn’t mean you don’t go to a good uni.

It does for a lot of people. Which is the point of the message, and in fact this whole thread.

I think this is a point. I live in a relatively deprived area and the overwhelming focus is to stay local and thr local ex poly is sweeping in for these debt averse kids and my fear at least some of them could have aimed higher but because of fiance can't.

Also if it becomes the norm to go local it becomes more of an exception to go to a distant uni. My thoughts the distant high profile uni will become the preserve of the middle classes. I just figure Russell Group unis may become less diverse in terms of intake economically.

The most deprived areas are below and a quick search shows you all have good unis that are commutable to.

Middlesbrough & Hartlepool
Because these two Teesside locations are less than 15 miles apart, they share the same closest top-tier universities.

• Durham University (approx. 20–25 miles away) – A world-class, historic Russell Group institution and consistently one of the top 10 universities in the UK.
• Newcastle University (approx. 35–40 miles away) – A leading Russell Group research university located in the heart of Newcastle.

📍 Birmingham You do not need to look far, as Birmingham is a major hub for higher education.

• University of Birmingham (In the city) – A prestigious, campus-based Russell Group university ranked among the global top 100.
• University of Warwick (approx. 20 miles away in Coventry) – Continually ranked in the UK top 10 with a world-renowned business school.

📍 Kingston upon Hull While Hull has its own university, the nearest highly ranked Russell Group institutions are a short train ride away in Yorkshire.

• University of York (approx. 40 miles away) – A prestigious Russell Group university known for its beautiful campus and strong arts, humanities, and sciences.
• University of Leeds (approx. 60 miles away) – A massive, highly popular Russell Group university with a stellar global reputation.
• Local Option: University of Hull is located right in the city and is well-regarded for logistics, politics, and nursing.

📍 Manchester Manchester is one of the UK's premier student cities.

• University of Manchester (In the city) – A massive, world-famous Russell Group powerhouse with 25 Nobel laureates among its current and former staff and students.
• University of Salford & Manchester Metropolitan University (In/around the city) – Excellent local options known for industry links, media (Salford's MediaCityUK campus), and practical career placement.

And in the south west the worst deprived areas with areas such as Torquay, Paignton and Plymouth have Exeter whilst areas such as Hartcliffe, Knowle Estate and Whitchurch Park in Bristol have Bristol. All such unis will be doing outreach.

I live in the south east, in one of the most deprived towns in the UK (yes such a thing does exist in the south east). The nearest uni is an hour and a half away. My DS does a fairly obscure course and it isn’t available there.

I commented above re my son being a young carer because I was horrified by the suggestion that being a young carer would be a ‘red flag’ to future employers.

You would need to improve the railway.

Hull is where the new trains have been ordered for because there aren’t enough existing ones. Even though it’s a major port, the line isn’t electrified (which is ridiculous - the whole Liverpool - Hull corridor needs to be electrified) so rather than electrified Intercities, the line is getting smaller, slower battery operated trains (very much the second class option).

The NE local train service is inadequate as the line capacity is taken up by intercity services on the mainline. The Northumberland Line is more frequent & has been really successful- but again the trains need more carriages.

West Yorkshire & Manchester are better but even here services could be improved. I think Manchester wants a metro/underground service to bridge the gap between trams & rail. Leeds has wanted trams for decades.

As I said earlier on this thread, if a student can get to an intercity service, then they will have the choices you mention. But if they are on a local line / or need a bus journey to get to the station then that will inevitably reduce choice. Driving also has its problems due to congestion in major urban centres (this can mean it takes a long time to travel short distances due to stop-start traffic and it also means that it’s undesirable to add large numbers of students to the existing commuting traffic).

I also think if there was to be a move towards students staying at home, then for fairness there would need to be some benchmarking between universities & some grouping of unis so it would be accepted that a degree from any university in a group is equivalent. That would mean that you would have to accept that degrees from Manchester, Durham, Leeds etc are the exact equivalent of Oxbridge. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but it would be a massive shift in attitude & seems unlikely.

Without this, then higher education is going to increasingly become unfair as fees & living costs increase, as students living close to a university or those with parents able to support them living away will become increasingly privileged.

There was a MN thread last year on this when there was a BBC (I think) article about a Manchester student living at home - it was very quickly pointed out on the thread that that student was very fortunate to have a good public transport link to one of the best departments for her chosen subject. That really seems to sum up this issue.