How safe and happy do students feel and what do they think about the friendliness and cleanliness of their University cities
Here at UK Guarantor, we wanted to find out more about what students think about the cities in which they study. For that reason, we’ve interviewed almost 500 students asking them how safe and happy they feel in the cities they study in. We also asked how friendly they think the locals are and how clean is their city.
Looking at our data broken down by gender, on a scale of 1 – 10, the students rated the cities in which they study as:
| Ranking Factor | Average | Men | Women |
| Safety | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.3 |
| Friendliness of the locals | 6.1 | 6.4 | 6.0 |
| How happy they are there | 7.1 | 7.4 | 6.9 |
| How clean the cities are | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.2 |
When it comes to safety, 60% of those surveyed feel safer in their hometowns, not the cities where they study.
Students living in university-owned halls feel significantly safer in the city where they study compared to students in other types of accommodation. Students who live with parents or other family members feel significantly safer in their hometowns compared to the cities where they study.
However, students who live in privately rented homes feel significantly safer in the cities where they study compared to students who live at home.
Students from London feel significantly safer in the cities where they study, compared to their hometowns. And people who don’t live in major cities feel significantly safer in their hometowns, compared to cities where they study.
International and EU students are significantly more likely to live in private halls compared to UK students.
We also wanted to know spending habits when it comes to food. Overall, 32% of the students spend between £51 and £100 a month on food.
International students are significantly more likely to spend more than £300 a month for food compared to UK students, 15% compared to 4%.
50% of international students spend more than £300 on food compared to 34% of the UK and 16% of EU students.
Overall, students most likely to spend between £51 and £100 a month on food (32%), followed by £101-£150 (23%) and £151-£200 (17%).
Would you like to rank your city click here to get involved.
Sample
Students were questioned in May 2019.
Age:
| Under 18 | 1% | 5 respondents |
| 18 – 21 | 56.2% | 272 respondents |
| 22 – 24 | 30.6% | 148 respondents |
| 25+ | 12.2% | 59 respondents |