Chamber and committees

NUS submission November 2021

NUS submission on impact of Covid 19 on deprivation and students

NUS Scotland

Education and Skills Committee Briefing

Introduction

NUS Scotland welcomes the opportunity to submit a briefing to the Education and Skills committee and recognises the unique challenges facing students and young people as a result of the current global pandemic. NUS Scotland is a federation of over 32 students' associations in Scotland with member associations stretching from the borders to the highlands. We work to promote, defend and extend the rights of students and apprentices in Scotland.

Good progress has been made in widening access to further and higher education to students from the most deprived backgrounds. According to the Fair Access Commissioner’s report, “Covid-19: Impact on fair access to higher education interim report”, Covid-19 has exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities in access to higher education. We cannot afford for Covid-19 to derail this progress toward widening access or for Scotland to fall behind.

We are calling on the Scottish Government to support students from the most deprived backgrounds to gain a place and stay in further and higher education. This requires holistic support with a student housing strategy, cost of living support and a student mental health action plan.

Student Poverty

For too long students have had to get by on cost-of-living support that doesn’t keep up with the cost of learning. In Scotland the reality is that students across Scotland are experiencing homelessness, taking on commercial debt and bank loans and using foodbanks just to make ends meet. We need to see proper financial support for them to meet the cost of learning, and to succeed in their studies.

The Mental Health Foundations ‘Thriving Learners’ report (November 2021) (1) surveying over 15,000 students found that in the last twelve months over a fifth (21.5%) of students worried about running out of food, nearly a quarter (23.5%) ate less due to a lack of resources or money and 7.2% were in households that ran out of food. The number of respondents worried about running out of food is significantly higher than the last reported Scottish national figure (9%) which was collated pre-pandemic. Overall, food poverty among students, particularly older students, is a huge rising concern and is acutely important in light of the widening access agenda.

NUS Scotland’s own research from July 2021 (2) found that 12 per cent of Scotland’s students are using foodbanks, 27 per cent rely on credit cards, and 9 per cent turned to bank loans. Nearly three in four (72 per cent) of students expressed concern about their ability to manage financially. By contrast, only a small minority of students surveyed had received support from their institutions through discretionary funds.

In addition, Scottish Government YouGov (3) research from 2017 showed that those in the lowest household income brackets were more likely to supplement the cost of living through taking on additional debt.

Now is the time for a long-term plan to rebuild a fairer and more equal education system that empowers and protects students. We need permanent solutions which will fix a fundamentally broken student support system and ensure students have access to support all year round – not simply more hardship funding. NUS Scotland made this clear in our budget submission that we simply cannot wait any longer for the Scottish Government to put an end to a system that leaves students without support over the summer months and fails to meet the cost of living. There are just 148 days between this year’s budget announcement and the day most students will receive their last financial support payment before the summer break. It is within the power of this Scottish Government to end student summer poverty for good by delivering a student summer payment.

Student Housing

Scotland is facing a student housing emergency driven by a shortage of available accommodation and soaring rents. These housing shortages though exacerbated by the pandemic pre-date Covid-19. Recent research conducted by NUS Scotland in July 2021 (4) showed that 17% of students have been unable to pay their rent in full over the last four months and 20% have been unable to pay their bills in over four months. We have also seen rising homelessness amongst the student population.

NUS Scotland believes that decision-makers have a duty to consider how housing policy can complement, rather than undermine, further and higher education widening access policy as the current cost of renting student housing is unaffordable to the majority of students.

The Scottish Government has committed to the first steps to improving cost-of-living support available to Scotland’s students. However, unless rent is controlled and affordable, any additional income students receive will be transferred directly into the pockets of landlords. Fundamentally, we remain concerned that too many students are being put in a position where they are working more hours than are recommended just so they can afford their rent, undermining their ability to successfully complete their studies. If students are being priced out of the institution of their choice, or education as a whole, because of exorbitant rents, the full potential of widening access will not be realised. It is crucial that widening access policies include supporting students from all backgrounds into affordable accommodation to help them stay in education.

NUS Scotland is calling for the Scottish Government to bring forward a student housing strategy for Scotland as promised, as well as the introduction of rent controls in the private rental sector, including in Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA). We are additionally calling for an enhancement of the rights of tenants living in PBSA.

Mental Health

NUS Scotland’s latest COVID-19 student survey (conducted in August 2021) found that 49 per cent of students believed that their mental health was worse than pre-pandemic. This has been confirmed by research of 15,000 students in Scotland conducted by Universities Scotland and the Mental Health Foundation. Their survey found almost three quarters of university students surveyed (74 per cent) had low wellbeing.

In his 2021 Annual Report the Commissioner for Fair Access acknowledged that the pandemic has had the greatest impact on students from deprived backgrounds: “Financial hardship and declining mental health, although they have affected all students, are likely to have the greatest impact on students from socially deprived backgrounds. They rely more on part-time jobs, the supply of which has been reduced by the pandemic, to pay their way through higher education (5).’’

Indeed, concerned about money are themselves a driver for poorer mental health amongst students. Research conducted by NUS Scotland’s student mental health project, Think Positive, a survey of over 3,000 students found that pre-pandemic almost half (48.92%) believed lack of money or financial pressures had a negative impact on their mental health(6).

The Think Positive research also found that students found it difficult to access services and often waited too long to receive them. Of those students surveyed who used a support service, institutional or external (e.g. NHS or third sector), more than half (59.6%) had to wait to access the support they needed. For those students who had to wait just over half (53.8%) waited more than a month.

Since the beginning of the pandemic NUS Scotland have successfully made the case to the Scottish Government for additional funding to support the mental health of students, winning over £5,000,000 for colleges and universities. This is in addition to ongoing funding to increase the number of counsellors in institutions and £750,000 for students’ associations.

However, much of this funding was provided as an emergency response to the pandemic with no promises of further funding. Additional funding for counsellors is also due to end next year, creating a financial cliff-edge for these services. While the vast majority of students’ associations used the additional funding provided to support health and wellbeing (72.2%), no repeat of this funding has yet been promised either.

NUS Scotland agree with both Colleges Scotland and Universities Scotland that funding to increase counselling provision should be extended beyond next year. We have also called on the Scottish Government to provide further funding to students’ associations in the coming year to support student wellbeing.

We also need to Scottish Government to bring forward a Student Mental Health Action Plan, as they have committed to, which addresses waiting times, ensures equity of access to counsellors and embeds mental health and wellbeing into the curriculum.

Digital poverty

The pivot to online learning has been more difficult for many young people from deprived communities as a result of the digital divide that already existed pre-pandemic. As the Commissioner for Fair Access has stated students from socially deprived backgrounds have, “More limited access to appropriate resources to access online learning – computers, connectivity and safe and dedicated study space at home. Despite the best efforts of institutions and help from the Government, a yawning ‘digital divide’ remains at both school and higher education level.”

In response to our calls for further funding to address this gap in 2020-21, the Scottish Government provided £5 million for colleges and universities to support students to access online learning. We were also pleased that the Scottish Government made a commitment for annual funding of £5 million for this purpose in this year’s Programme for Government. However, while it is now almost three months since many colleges returned, this funding has not been forthcoming.

Meanwhile, 1 in 10 respondents (10.3%) to the Thriving Learners research (7) felt that they did not have adequate internet access where they lived to engage with university and friends online.

With the Scottish Government now asking colleges and universities to continue online learning into the next year, it is vital that further funding to support students to get online is provided as a matter of urgency.

References

1. Thriving Learners- Realising student potential and wellbeing, Mental Health Foundation, 2021: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/scotland/supporting-students-thrive

2. Coronavirus Student Survey Scotland Report, NUS Scotland 2021

3. Student Support Review, YouGov Survey, 2017: https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-review-student-financial-support-scotland/pages/11/

4. Coronavirus Student Survey Scotland Report, NUS Scotland 2021

5. Annual Report, Commissioner for Fair Access, 2021: https://www.gov.scot/publications/re-committing-fair-access-plan-recovery-annual-report-2021/documents/

6. Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing Support for Scotland’s Students, Think Positive, 2020: https://www.thinkpositive.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Improving-mental-health-and-wellbeing-support-for-Scotland.pdf

7. Thriving Learners- Realising student potential and wellbeing, Mental Health Foundation, 2021: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/scotland/supporting-students-thrive