Accommodation choices Overall, 39% of applicants intend to live in university halls in their first year, with a further 9% intending to live in private purpose-built student accommodation. About a quarter (23%) intend to live at their parents’ home. Surprisingly, international applicants were less likely to intend to live in halls, and more likely to want to live in private rented housing or in a home that they own. This is possibly due to different cultural understandings of student accommodation options. Among UK applicants there are marked differences between socioeconomic groups. In groups AB, only 18% intend to live in their parents’ home. This increases incrementally by social grade, with 33% of groups DE intending to live at home. UCAS End of Cycle Data 2023 showed that 33% of all applicants intended to live at home, suggesting that the actual rate is more common in practice than the Applicant Index data suggests. Nonetheless, despite rising living costs (and 42% of applicants indicating living costs as their greatest cost concern) there does not yet seem to be a large scale move towards commuter student life. Impact of cost of living on university choice Applicants were asked to describe, in their own words, how the cost of living has affected their university choice, if at all. While the majority of responses were neutral, 22% shared negative themes related to costs associated with university. The location of the university was mentioned by one in five, and 17% mentioned that their choice of university would be affected. In terms of location, a common theme was making a choice constrained by financial considerations. This included choosing to live at home although, as mentioned above, rates of living at home do not seem to have increased. I know tuition fees are expensive and I’m not Neither me or my household members can My parents are divorced; the parent I live with sure how I’d pay for them so I chose universities afford for me to move out, so I had to only look is unemployed. I took a gap year to earn my close to my home or in my city to save on costs into universities that are in London that I can own money from employment, and have chosen such as accommodation. access through public transport. a university close to home so I do not have to cover accommodation costs. Unite Students | Applicant Index Report 17