Cost of living crisis for students in England vs Spain
The will of wanting to get a better education comes with some challenges, most specifically, whit the cost of living ones. In England, students face financial issues that influence in their daily and academic activities. We are going to delve into the cost of living crisis faced by students in England and compare it with the financial issues that students face in Spain.
For students in England the cost of living is a pressing topic. High tuition fees, accommodation costs and general living costs, especially in big cities as London or Manchester. According to Birmingham University, students spend around 14.000 pounds a year (51 weeks), from which 7.000 (50%) are the rent of the flat or the accommodation. Accommodation costs are the biggest that the students have to provide, with really high prices in student areas. We had the chance to talk to William Wood, a second-year student of Coventry University, who told us about his cost of living situation here in Coventry “I am living right now in a shared flat with two friends I made last year, because renting an apartment for my own wasn’t an option and each of us pays 450 pounds a month”.
These problems are not less in Spain, where students spend around 800 and 1.200 euros a month according to Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Students also face high rent fees, especially in cities like Madrid or Barcelona, around 350-500 euros in a shared flat. Tuition fees in Spain are certainly lower in Spain than in England but this is the only exception, as the rest of cost are more or less the same. We had also the chance to talk to David Roig Ramon, physiotherapy student in his last year at Universidad Europea de Madrid about the cost of living situation as a student in Madrid, “I’m right now living in a shared apartment with other 3 guys since my second year and our renting fee firt was about 500 euros each one, but with the bad situation here it is right now at 570 euros per month”.
This high accommodation prices are also the main issue for parents and students to join University, “I have to admit that first it was not very clear that I could finally go to Madrid to start my degree because my parents and I struggle really hard to get an affordable apartment, and finally I had to go into a shared flat without knowing who would be my flat mates, it was really hard and stressful” David Roig. In England the housing competition and demand of accommodations is making rental prices increasing, the consequence of this is students for looking for smaller places or sharing them with more people “Honestly we had no serious problems looking for an accommodation when I came to Coventry last year, there are quite a lot of student accommodations with really good offers, so I stayed at Bishop Gate Accommodation which was around 130 pounds a week I think. But yeah, it was easy job to find something” William Wood. And this issue is not less in Spain, it is even bigger as prices for flats in urban cities as Madrid and Barcelona are getting more expensive every time. But rental and accommodation is not the only problem. Daily expensive as grocery’s, transport, and normal daily things. Food is getting more expensive every time and none of those countries are an exception on this issue. According to the Spanish newspaper ElIndependiente, Spain has the highest inflation registered in Euro zone with 9.5%.
Let’s come to the actual difference we can find in between the costs of living in both countries. The key difference we find it at financial support system that is available for the students. In England, student’s loans are common, that may not always cover the full expenses, but it really helps. In Spain, although there are scholarships and aids, but they are not that common a much more difficult to get. “I applied for a scholarship back in 2020 when I started university, I’m still waiting, and so it is with all of us.” David Roig.
But it’s not all about spending the money, we will also talk about the possibility of earning money as a student, the part time jobs. “Finding a job was quite easy, I started las year working at Costa coffee at the weekends to earn some money, and this year I am still there, and it is great. But it is not only in Costa, but you can also find a part time job anywhere”. And here is where we will see a huge difference in between Spain and England as in the UK it is much easier to get a student job, more flexible timetables, and more trust in students. The main problem in Spain is the timetable of students for jobbing while doing their university degree. In Spain there are almost the double of lectures than in England and it is really difficult to find a working place that offers you weekend journeys only or working only a couple of days in the week, “here it is mostly impossible to get a job as a student, no one wants people without experience in their companies and all the people is looking for people who is available at least 20 hours a week, since the first year I already tried to get a job, but no one wanted a student for only the weekends. So, what I do is spending my whole summer working for being prepared for the Uni year” David Roig. The usual look for people working 20 or 40 hours a week and a normal salary. This is different in England as there are a lot of working places that only need people for few hours at weekends or on certain days and they don’t care about hire students.
In both countries students are struggling with the among of cost of living crisis. Trying to reduce tuition fees, increase aids and improve housing conditions, these are the demands from student unions, which are also a great option to go if you need help with something are to get any advice.
While students in England and Spain face similar financial issues, the nuances of their experiences differ due to different economic landscapes and supports. To face this cost of living crisis of students it is needed some political reforms, more financial support, and more social initiatives to ensure the access to education without need to worry about financial problems.
Max Hackenbroich