The Framework › Personal
Financial Pressure
Distribution of responses
Notable struggling minority: 19% of responses sit in the bottom band even as 49% thrive. The mean understates the lower band, which is the segment to act on.
How institutions vary
What we ask
“I feel financially stable enough to focus on my studies.”
What students say, and why
Cost of living outpaces support; students get by month to month.
"Money is tight, but I make it work month to month."
"Cost of living plus the student loan barely covers anything."
Manageable overall, but canteen prices and start-up equipment costs sting.
"Good teaching, good teachers, but quite expensive to start up with the equipment you have to buy."
"Everything’s cool enough, except the canteen prices."
Representative, de-identified comments from the lowest- and highest-scoring responses, translated where needed.
Related insights
How we measure it
This is the topic-level average across its subtopics, on a 0-10 scale (higher is better), so an individual subtopic can score higher or lower than the topic shown here. Figures are scored responses from the last 12 months, mapped to the 2026 framework via the canonical question mapping; the cross-2020 figure on the Index uses the full response base. Movement compares the most recent six months with the prior six. Distribution bands: 0-4, >4-<8, 8-10. Cross-institution aggregate; no single institution identified; minimum group size applied.
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