BNU’s ‘rapid response’ to cost-of-living crisis features as best practice case study in new report
Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) has been praised for its “rapid response” in supporting students through the cost-of-living crisis, in a new report which calls on the Government to urgently review the level of student maintenance support.
The new research, How to Beat a Cost-of-Learning Crisis: Universities’ Support for Students, is based on a statistical analysis of 140 university responses and interviews with nearly 60 university professionals. BNU was invited to be a best practice case study to offer insight to other institutions of effective strategies to alleviate the impact of the crisis on students.
The report details how BNU’s well-established culture of doing what is right for the student body facilitated an award-winning cost-of-living response at the 2023 Whatuni Student Choice Awards. Agile leadership, flexible processes, openness to ideas, trusted student-facing staff, and a close working relationship with the Students’ Union were all cited as key reasons for why BNU’s approach has been so successful.
The impact of the University’s commitment to ease the financial burden on students, and ensure they remain at BNU and progress in their studies, is clear with a significant correlation between students receiving financial support and progression in their studies: the progression rate for students who received a bursary was 7.3% higher than those who did not.
The key elements of our cost-of-living support included:
- Allocated £1m subsidy to reduce halls’ accommodation rates in 21/22 (saving students £1,166 a year) following £1.6m of rent rebates and fee waivers in 20/21. The 22/23 accommodation rates rose slightly but at a much lower rate than the 11.1% inflation rate that would eventually transpire in October 2022.
- Increased scholarships and bursaries by 10% to account for inflation and allocated £855k to 1,963 students.
- Adopted the Real Living Wage for students employed by the University and SU, boosting their earnings by £52,000.
BNU also funded Bucks SU to:
- Enable all students, irrespective of their income, to participate fully in university life with free access to recreation, sports and skills development through the Big Deal initiative, which offers monthly savings of up to £200 to those who take advantage of everything on offer.
- Reduce 30% off menu prices in campus catering outlets, with projected savings for students of £50k in 22/23;
- Develop a programme of free breakfasts, lunches and evening meals, targeted to each campus’ student profile to maximise benefit and impact. A total of 7204 free meals were accessed by 1530 individual students; and
- Provide free products to tackle period and hygiene poverty in BNU bathrooms.
Snapshots from the report read: “At BNU, staff are clear that they are providing a service at significant cost for students, and with that comes the obligation to do what is right for their student body.
“Staff interviewed also feel trusted to act where they consider necessary, and these factors allow for rapid action on freezing the costs of accommodation and reducing the costs of food on campus, among other strategies.
“From the perspective of the SU, the strong relationship with the University is highly valuable, allowing them to act and get funding quickly. They considered University leaders enthusiastic about acting and made their own case more powerful by relaying stories of students facing hardship. The SU and university collaborate extensively on communication: student representatives were consulted on the tone and content of difficult messages to convey them sensitively.”
Professor Nick Braisby, Vice-Chancellor at Buckinghamshire New University and author of the Afterword to the report, said:
“This timely report highlights one of higher education’s greatest modern-day challenges – inequality of access, participation and achievement. This challenge is exacerbated by a combination of the cost-of-living crisis and government policy (or lack of policy intervention). Higher education providers are doing what they can to support their students, and this report contains much insight as to how they could provide more and more effective support. BNU is proud to be recognised in the report for our comprehensive award-winning support package, enabled by agile leadership, flexible processes and committed staff.
“But Universities should not and cannot bear responsibility alone for addressing the cost-of-living crisis facing our students. We concur with the report’s call for government to do much more – if they do not, higher education study will simply become unaffordable for many of our students. Ignoring their needs will cause immense damage to our higher education sector, to our society and to our students’ life chances. We urge the government to heed this call for action.”
You can read the full report here.