Oxford students in debt as student loan fails to cover rent

Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University students can apply for maintenance loans yearly to cover their rent.

However, a new analysis has revealed that even the maximum loans cannot cover students living in Oxford.

The analysis which covered 32 university cities, revealed Oxford is one of 17 where the maintenance loan does not cover the average rent.

Instead, students living in Oxford are £113 short each week.

Cities leaving students even worse off is Bristol, Guildford, Bath and London.

Oxford is one of the most expensive university cities to pay rent in (Image: Supplied)

Meanwhile, the cities leaving students with extra money leftover after paying their rent is Sheffield, Plymouth, Swansea and Lincoln.

The maximum means-tested loan is set at two rates: £14,135 for students living away from home in London, and £10,830 everywhere else.

Average weekly rents on the My Student Halls platform range from £138 in Sheffield to £427 in London, a spread of more than three times.

A standard UK undergraduate maintenance loan is calculated to cover a 30 to 39-week academic year, depending on your course and year of study.

My Student Halls founder, Dan Roberts, has advised students to check the contract lengths when booking if they want to save money.

He said: “Half the contracts on our platform are 51-week lets, not the 44 weeks people assume, so students are paying rent through the summer whether they are living there or not. On a £300 room, that is over £2,000 of difference, and it rarely gets mentioned when people compare headline weekly prices.

“If your loan is your main income, look for properties with 44/45 weeks in the contract. If you’re not planning on spending your time there in the summer, this will save you a LOT of money in the long run.”