THE number of students applying for emergency funds to help with living costs is 82 per cent higher than pre-pandemic, with ethnic minority students struggling the most, research revealed today.

The amount awarded by student hardship funds differs between universities, but in some cases, support of up to £2,500 in an academic year is granted to help with costs.

Campaign group Generation Rent analysed data obtained through Freedom of Information requests from 27 universities across Britain.

It found that there were 38,484 applications to hardship funds across the universities in the year 2022-23, compared to 28,517 applications in 2019-20, making the number 82 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

Six universities provided ethnicity breakdowns which showed that black, Asian and mixed-race students made up 45 per cent of hardship fund applications, despite only making up 27 per cent of all students at those universities. 

There were 6,486 applications from black, Asian and mixed-race students, compared to 7,258 from white students. 

It found that more than double (4 per cent) of black, Asian and mixed-race students applied to the fund between 2019-20 and 2022-23, compared to white students who accounted for 1.8 per cent.

Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said: “It is extremely concerning to see that students are still struggling to make ends meet four years after the height of the pandemic — and it is black, Asian and mixed-race students who are struggling the most. 

“Students are facing high accommodation costs and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis — yet they do not have access to benefits, especially universal credit, which others are able to rely on. 

“Students must not be excluded from funding and support — and black, Asian and mixed-race students, who are experiencing the worst of these issues, cannot be abandoned, especially just when they are starting out their lives as independent adults.”

In August, Generation Rent published research which found that British universities were not providing a sufficient amount of on-campus accommodation.

The analysis of 49,161 rooms across nine universities found that only one in six on-campus rooms was affordable.