Freshers Survey
With students fighting through Clearing over the last remaining university places, EPR decided to find out what impact student debt and rising unemployment amongst new graduates might be having on future undergraduate attitudes.
We polled a national sample of 400 young people planning to go to university now or within the next 3 years to find out. The results surprised us.
Nearly half (46%) of our respondents plan to definitely live away from home whilst at university and a further 14% will probably do so. Only 17% will definitely stay at home, a much lower figure than we anticipated.
| % | |
|---|---|
| Yes, definitely | 17 |
| Probably | 9 |
| Possibly | 9 |
| Probably not | 14 |
| Definitely not | 46 |
| Not sure/don't know | 5 |
| * online survey conducted from 17 - 24 August 2009. |
The reasons seem clear from our findings. For all our respondents — whether stay-at-homes or getaways — the social life offered by university, which can arguably be best achieved through living among other students, is something they look forward to as much as their degree course. And for them, the freedom and independence offered by going away to university is not far behind in importance.
| % | |
|---|---|
| Study/learning | 19 |
| Student/social life | 19 |
| Meeting new people | 19 |
| Freedom/independence | 16 |
| Getting a degree/qualification | 5 |
| Other/no mention | 22 |
| * Open-ended/unprompted question ** Ranked by frequency of first mention |
Yet whilst our respondents are generally excited by the prospect of going to university, they are also realistic. More than one-third are worried about the levels of debt they are likely to build up and, despite a majority wanting to get away from home, many still fear loneliness and being homesick. But they appear to have accepted this as a price worth paying for an enhanced university experience.
| % | |
|---|---|
| Finance/money/debt | 35 |
| Making new friends | 9 |
| Workload/course difficulty | 8 |
| Homesickness | 8 |
| Coping on my own | 4 |
| Not fitting in | 3 |
| Not knowing what to do | 2 |
| No worries | 8 |
| Other/no mention | 23 |
| * Open-ended/unprompted question ** Ranked by frequency of first mention |
