Caterer Sodexho has again teamed up with the Times Education Supplement to produce a survey of student lifestyles.
In a nutshell it says that the perceptions we have of students are wrong and that they are increasingly sober, hardworking and live at home. The survey suggests that the fact that 500,000 students are now living at home is a matter for amazement but it’s far less so when you consider that this represents only about 22% of the UK’s 2.25m tertiary students. In other words 78% live away from home and while the majority who live at home pay no rent this is hardly cause for any radical revision of the business models for companies catering to the student market.
What is perhaps worrying for some groups, particularly student unions, is that almost two-thirds (1.9m) are almost completely disengaged from campus life. This is perhaps more a reflection of modern life than an indictment of student life. In any event one of the results of widening participation was always going to be a growth in the number of students who were going to need to work to help pay for their studies.
Sodexho’s study is an astute move for a catering company, because it has cleverly positioned itself alongside student unions and academics as a student advocate (its 2005 survey was also tabled as part of the School Food Trust’s main report about Transforming School Meals). The government have also released their own Student Income and Expenditure Survey, the highlights of which are (period 1998/9 to 2004/5):
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15% fall in spending on entertainment and alcohol
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Average annual expenditure rose 44% to £10,273
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Housing costs rose 53%
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Average income (per academic year) increased 46% to £8333
These surveys are not worthless but their results should always be taken with a pinch of salt as not only do students, like all other market research participants, lie; their primary use is as a media/pr device or a business development tool. Two figures show the unreality of Sodexho’s survey; the first is the claim that almost one quarter (24%) of students expect to have no debts at the end of their course and a similar percentage (21%) claim not to drink at all. Next, they’ll be saying they don’t have sex and like listening to classical music!
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