The hidden cost of commuting to university
Around 31% of UK 18-year-old applicants now intend to live at home while studying. With average rents in some UK cities now hitting £1,000 a month, commuting is no longer a lifestyle choice for many students – it’s a financial reality.
New research commissioned by the Office for Students (OfS) and delivered by the team here at Savanta surveyed over 1,000 students across England to build a clearer picture of what that reality looks like.
Here’s our take on the findings.
The longer the journey, the worse the experience
Travel time is the single strongest predictor of a negative student experience. Among students commuting for under 45 minutes, around 28% report a moderate or high negative impact on their experience. Among those travelling 45 minutes or more, that rises to between 47% and 55%. For students travelling 90 minutes or more each way, just 25% report no negative impact at all.
The impact shows up in attendance, access and engagement – not just in how students feel. Three quarters of long-journey commuters report arriving too tired to prepare properly for taught sessions. They are more likely to miss timetabled classes, skip academic office hours and struggle to access facilities outside scheduled hours.
These are not minor inconveniences. They are real barriers to academic engagement that compound over time.
It’s a participation problem, not just a belonging problem
One of the more nuanced findings from the research is that commuting affects practical participation more strongly than sense of belonging. Most commuter students still feel they belong at their institution, and the gap between commuters and non-commuters on this measure is real but relatively modest: 66% of long-journey commuters report a sense of belonging, compared with 74% of those with shorter journeys.
The starker differences show up in access and engagement. Students with longer journeys or higher travel costs are significantly more likely to have missed welfare support sessions, skipped societies and social activities, or decided not to travel to campus at all because of cost. Three quarters of long-journey commuters say they have made that call at least once during the academic year. In other words, a significant proportion of students are enrolled, but not fully participating in campus life.
Our own HEVue research shows that sense of belonging is the single biggest driver of student recommendations. When commuting restricts access to the support and social infrastructure that builds belonging, the knock-on effects reach further than universities might expect.
For many students, commuting isn’t a choice
The research is also clear about who commuter students tend to be. Around 35% of long-journey commuters say they would have preferred to live closer to campus but could not afford to – nearly twice the proportion among students with shorter journeys. Commuters are also more likely to have caring responsibilities, to have been eligible for free school meals and to hold at least one widening participation indicator.
For many, the commute is the price of being able to participate in higher education at all. And the impact isn’t evenly distributed – commuting disproportionately affects students who are already navigating more barriers than most.
So, what should universities actually do?
More than two in five commuters in the research are unable to identify any support their institution provides for them. Around one in five rate their university’s support for travel as poor. That gap between need and provision is striking, and it is one that universities have the power to close.
The support students ask for is practical and, in many cases, straightforward to deliver: travel bursaries, earlier notice of timetable changes, more compact scheduling to reduce unnecessary journeys, and greater flexibility around online or hybrid attendance when commuting is not a realistic option. These are not radical asks. They are relatively simple adjustments that would make a meaningful difference to a growing proportion of the student population.
Universities that take commuter students seriously – designing their timetables, spaces and support services with them in mind rather than as an afterthought – will be better placed to serve a student population that looks increasingly different from the one that higher education was originally built around.
And for universities, getting this right will not just improve outcomes for commuter students – it will build a more inclusive campus experience for everyone.