Student income and expenditure survey, 2021 to 2022: Welsh report

The 2021 to 2022 Student Income and Expenditure Survey (SIES) was commissioned by the Department for Education with support from the Welsh Government. The study was conducted in partnership by NatCen Social Research (NatCen) and the Institute for Employment Studies (IES). This summary presents key findings for students from Wales. A technical report and full set of tables are also available here, along with a separate summary covering students from England.

The aim of the survey was to provide an authoritative report on the financial position of higher education (HE) students in Wales and England in the 2021 to 2022 academic year. It also sought to measure the impact of changes to the student financial support package by comparing results with the previous survey undertaken in 2014 to 2015. The main changes to student support policy in Wales were:

• Freezing of tuition fee charges for full-time students studying in Welsh institutions at 2012 to 2013 levels (maximum of £9,000 a year).
• Removing the non-means-tested fee grant for students starting their HE programme from 1st September 2018 replacing this with tuition loans, and refocusing support towards helping with living costs for those most in need through means-tested tapered maintenance grants and maintenance loans.
• Introduction of support for the living costs for part-time students starting their HE programme from 1st September 2018, through grants and loans.

The 2021 to 2022 survey covered both full-time and part-time students at higher education providers (HEPs) including the Open University (OU), and further education institutions (FEIs) who were participating in undergraduate courses during the 2021 to 2022 academic year. Data were collected between April and June 2022 via:

• A 30-minute online survey or telephone interview with a randomly selected representative sample of 1,414 full-time and 739 part-time Welsh-domiciled students at 78 institutions in Wales and England (including the OU) .
• Online expenditure diaries detailing the expenses incurred by full-time and parttime students over the course of 7 days, completed by 851 Welsh-domiciled students. The 7 day average is multiplied by 39 to represent spending across the academic year.