The author of The Sunday Times Good University Guide talks challenges faced by students.

The new guide is out now.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, I mean, you know, it's the start of a 10 for all students, you know, how to afford

00:08to not only pay for your studies now, but live while you're there. And, you know, it's

00:12OK to have a good time as well. That's supposed to be the best years of your life. So we've

00:17had an investigation into how to make the maintenance grant, maintenance allowance rather

00:21work, loan, excuse me, the maintenance loan work. And if you can stretch on £35 a week,

00:27the quick answer is you can. But the answer added to that is it's a bit miserable. You

00:33know, you're living on basics. You're not going out. And there's no flex in the system

00:38for anything other than bare minimum living. So for most students, they look to their families

00:43for extra support because the maintenance loan only goes so far. For most people, it

00:48covers barely the rent. And for some, it doesn't even cover the rent. So then you're looking

00:53at student jobs. And for students who have very high contact hours, that's not always

00:58possible, as well as, of course, it falling to the banking mum and dad who have always

01:03been an implicit part of funding for studies. What are the key factors that contributed

01:10to top university rankings in the 2025 guide? Well, we look at a broad cross-section of

01:18metrics that are the most relevant to undergraduates. So we look at how students feel about their

01:25time on campus, their teaching quality, the wider experience. And we measure that with

01:30graduate prospects, of course. So important to everybody these days with the crowd of

01:37student debt hanging over. And we look at research quality, as well, which is a huge

01:42one, one of the reasons why Warwick ranks so highly. And we look at other metrics, including

01:47this year for the first time, a sustainability metric, which is done in partnership with

01:51our friends at People and Planet. Great stuff. Thank you so much for your time

01:55today. Thank you, as well. Nice to talk to you.