A quarter of UK students don’t feel confident about living away from home

Scottish students are the most anxious about leaving home, while students from the North East were the most confident, finds new research from The Student Room

Student life

Seeta Bhardwa

Editor, THE Student

September 26 2017

Students don't feel confident about living alone

New research from The Student Room has found that a quarter of students who started university this September don’t feel confident about living away from home.

Male students feel slightly more prepared, with 81 per cent saying they felt prepared for university life compared with 74 per cent of female students. Respondents were the most worried about managing their personal finances (27 per cent).

Scottish students were the most anxious about leaving home (32 per cent) followed by students from the North West (31 per cent) and Yorkshire (28 per cent). The most confident about leaving home were students from the North East (84 per cent), the West Midlands (81 per cent) and East Anglia (80 per cent).

Students were also asked about which household tasks they had never completed before. Most students (79 per cent) had never changed the battery in a smoke alarm before and 68 per cent had never paid a bill.

My advice for prospective students

Other tasks that students had never done before were changing a light bulb (48 per cent), creating a financial budget (46 per cent) or booking a medical appointment (39 per cent). Some 29 per cent had never earned money from a part-time job.

When the respondents needed advice they were more than twice as likely (80 per cent) to turn to their mums for advice than their dads (37 per cent).

Jack Wallington, community manager at The Student Room, commented: “People joke about students not knowing how to make their bed or boil an egg, but leaving home can have difficult moments for some people, while for others it can be a miserable experience.

“Homesickness and loneliness can go unnoticed, and worries about money, making friends and other issues can lead to a stressful period for young people experiencing this for the first time. It’s important to talk to people and share your own concerns, but also look out for your housemates and ask how they’re coping,” he added.

The survey of more than 1,500 students was conducted by the The Student Room in partnership with the University of East Anglia, to find out how prepared for university this year’s freshers are.