RBS survey reveals Edinburgh is the UK’s most expensive student city

A recent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) survey has shown that Edinburgh was ranked last in cost-effectiveness on a list of UK universities, for students to both work and live in.

RBS survey reveals Edinburgh is the UK’s most expensive student city

RBS survey reveals Edinburgh is the UK’s most expensive student city

The survey was of 25 UK universities, which showed students at Edinburgh University spend above average on going out and on living costs. The high living costs that make Edinburgh so expensive are thought to be a result of the below average income and above average rent costs.

Despite living costs, Edinburgh students still hold the medal for being the highest spenders on social events and additionally spend above average on alcohol each week.

Dundee was the cheapest city beyond the border to live in, coming in at 10th on the RBS Student Living Index. Not too far behind was Glasgow in 16th place, who was just beaten by Reading.

The most cost-effective University City was Portsmouth, joined by fellow Southwest city Exeter in 5th place. Liverpool and Newcastle were 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

The survey, conducted by RBS, quizzed 2,500 students throughout the UK. They used a variety of factors, one of which was the night-out spending to time studying ratio.

The student average for rent in the UK is £110. Edinburgh has an average of £112.05, working out to be nearly £100 more expensive for a 48 week contract. This is compared to Glasgow, which would be on average £763 cheaper for the same period of time. The average in Dundee would be £842.88 cheaper than Edinburgh.

UK Students receive most of their income from student loans, which was 4 times more than any other source of income, at £161.14 per week. The next highest source of income was money from students’ parents.

Only two per cent of UK students take student fees into consideration when they are deciding on higher education. Scottish national students do not have to pay university fees when studying in Scotland, whereas Welsh National Students studying in the UK only have to pay a maximum of £3,900 for their university yearly fees.

For the other 98% of students, higher concerns included reputation of the university, subject and course choice, how far the university was from home and cost of living.

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