The familisation of student finance: connecting housing, finance and inequality outcomes in higher education

This article explores how university students in England navigate intensifying financial pressures driven by rising living and housing costs and declining state funding in the form of maintenance loans. Drawing on qualitative data from focus group interviews with university students in a city with a highly competitive housing market, our research examines the lived experiences and coping strategies of students and the role of family finance in shaping their experiences and outcomes. Findings highlight that while parental support is often crucial for students’ ability to access and fully participate in university life, it is unevenly distributed and can also generate ambivalent feelings of guilt, pressure and diminished independence towards their parents. The article provides a novel perspective by bringing housing into student finance debates. It argues that the combined effects of current state and family funding structures, alongside housing market pressures, undermine the capacity of universities to promote social mobility and instead contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities. By bridging two fields of student finance and housing, the article makes significant contributions to the theories and debates of contemporary youth transitions and draws policy implications for new forms of inequality and dependency among emerging adults.