The coronavirus pandemic has affected universities across the world, 13 UK universities are at risk of going bust* and 80% of students have struggled financially.** It’s not just universities and students who’ve suffered – university towns and cities have also experienced a loss of income when students were forced to move off campus and back to their families when the country first went into lockdown in March.

Studee researched the true cost of the pandemic for university cities and towns in the last 6 months. Lockdown has been tough for all areas of the country, but for those that have a large student population, the pandemic has been economically catastrophic.

Some towns lost the majority of their communities when students left and millions of pounds went with them. High streets up and down the UK saw an 18.8%*** drop of non-food purchases in the 3 months to August, demonstrating the true cost that covid-19 had. Remove a huge proportion of a town’s population and the financial impact was even worse.

We’ve worked out small towns like Egham may have lost as much as £18 million and Falmouth over £8 million. Major cities that are home to larger student populations like London may have lost over £580 million in the last 6 months.

Studee reveals the university towns most likely to need the greatest support post covid  

The following towns and cities will have felt the economic impact from the pandemic the hardest due to having the highest rate of students in their population;

Egham

The home to Royal Holloway University, Egham is a small university town in Surrey with a large student population. Studee estimates Egham has lost as much as £18 million from the lack of students over the past 6 months. £8 million hasn’t been spent on groceries, £1.5 million lost on takeaways and over half a million pounds wouldn’t have been given to charity or spent on gifts.