This is the national picture, but it is not the only picture.

University College Birmingham proudly sits in the heart of the second city with ready access to everything it has to offer. At the same time, our postcode is one of the most deprived postcodes in the country and around 70 per cent of our home students commute to study.

We recognised early that students needed more than reassurance and emergency measures, they needed real, tangible, uncomplicated support that made a university education genuinely accessible.

We saw our students’ struggles and made a deliberate choice not to wait for things to get worse.

For September 2025, we introduced our £5k Cost of Living Allowance and for the September 2026 intake, we boosted that to £6,000: a dedicated no-strings financial package designed to reduce the pressure on students’ weekly budgets, it doesn’t have to be paid back and isn’t tied to household income.

In March this year, we launched our eight fully funded Employers’ Scholarships: ensuring that all our student support is secured to real industry engagement.

And in April, we innovated the 2 Day Degree model: giving students of any age more time for paid work, caring responsibilities or simply space to live life.

These are not small adjustments or initiatives bogged down in small print: they represent a structural and strategic shift in how we re-imagined our student support. A secure footing, not a safety net. A foundation, not a phase.

Today, financial support alone is not enough.

A recent report by Enterprise Skills that analyses the 2024-2025 Institute of Student Employers data describes:

A perfect storm of a shrinking graduate job market, the disruptive rise of Artificial Intelligence in recruitment, and a persistent, deepening gap in essential human capabilities is devaluing traditional credentials and forcing a fundamental rethink of what it means to be “work-ready”.

And this mirrors what our own network of businesses and employers are telling us.

Students need practical experience, networks and the confidence to walk into an interview, safe in the knowledge they know more than just the theory.

They need conviction that their degree will lead somewhere meaningful.

Consequently, universities are rightly increasing their focus on placements, internships and employer engagement. These initiatives are valuable, but short-term experiences alone may not be enough to bridge the gap between study and employment, in an increasingly competitive graduate market.

Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, makes a valid point: if students are increasingly already working and studying to make ends meet, where do they find the time to take on an unpaid placement?

Why our sector-leading model matters.

By reducing financial worries, by freeing up time, by embedding enduring, meaningful placements into our courses, we are removing the barriers that can hold students back. We are fostering and nurturing the conditions that empower our students to take the opportunities that could change their trajectory.

Clearing is often framed as a pivotal moment of choice for students, but the bigger question sits with universities:

What does it now take to ensure that a student can not only enter higher education, but succeed within it?

If institutions continue to treat financial support, flexibility and employability as separate agendas, they miss the broader reality of student life today.

At University College Birmingham, we are bringing those strands together because student success depends on all three working in tandem.

The future of higher education will not be defined by access alone, but by outcomes that students can realistically achieve.

Find out more about work placements.