Financial circumstances, financial difficulties and academic achievement among first-year undergraduates

Many governments have adopted a policy of seeking to increase the number of students entering higher education and to finance this expansion by transferring costs from the state to the individual. In the United Kingdom, this policy has been pursued with relatively little concern for the impact that the increasing financial burden may have on students. Research at one case-study university suggested that many students were coping with their day-to-day living costs more comfortably than they had expected to in the first year. However, those in a difficult financial position at the start of their period of study were likely to face greater problems in the course of their first year. Two difficulties in particular – having missed payments at the start of the academic programme, and having to wait for the first student loan payment – were shown to have a damaging effect on academic performance.