A key barrier to confident decision-making is the lack of clear financial information at the point of application. Students will choose courses months before student finance opens, meaning they don’t always have a clear understanding of both costs and available support.
Practical cost planning, made real
To address this, UCAS has launched the Budget Calculator, an interactive tool within the UCAS Hub designed to bring greater transparency to student finances. Drawing on anonymised spending data from Blackbullion and accommodation insights from StudentCrowd, it enables advisers to support students with a realistic view of living costs across 100 UK locations.
By putting practical, location-specific cost information directly into students’ hands, the tool will support more informed choices – helping them plan ahead with confidence, reduce money concerns, and enable more meaningful conversations with advisers, parents, carers and guardians about where and how they study.
