My three-hour university commute is worth the £7,000 saving on halls

On a packed morning train to Manchester, 19-year-old Amelka Zambrzycka is surrounded by commuters.

There are no available buses from his mother’s home in Horwich, on the other side of Bolton, so he walked 25 minutes to the station, as he does every morning, despite the freezing weather.

But Amelka doesn’t go to work. She’s a first-year biology student who is one of hundreds of thousands of undergraduates who have chosen to live at home rather than pay for college dorms.

As the deadline for applying to Ucas approaches on Wednesday, January 14, thousands more people will be considering whether it is worth doing the same for them.

More than 700,000 “commuting students” study at universities in the UK.

This has led to universities such as Manchester creating dedicated social spaces for people to hang out between lectures, complete with lounge seating, study areas, kitchen facilities, lockers and showers.

It was just before 8.30am when Amelka arrived at Manchester University’s commuter hall.

One can make a cup of tea or have breakfast in the kitchen area, run some last-minute errands in the work bays, or even take a shower after an early morning gym session.

Most of his course mates are just rolling out of bed in their nearby dormitories to be ready for their first class of the day at 09:00.

But Amelka had been up for two hours, having just completed the first of two 90-minute trips he makes each day between his mother’s house and the downtown campus.

The University of Manchester’s own cost of living estimates suggests a first-year student can expect to spend £7,875 on accommodation alone in 2025/26.

The university says the estimated cost for first-year students in Manchester this year will be £13,685, for everything from food and takeaways to clothing and course materials.

Rent and living costs vary widely across the country but have generally been rising in recent years.

The Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) says students in England now need £61,000 over three years of study to “achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living”.

Amelka’s mother doesn’t collect her rent, and although she buys her own food and will spend around £700 on public transport this year, her costs remain well below what they would be if she lived closer to the university.

Latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that the number of students living in their own or parents’ homes during term time has risen steadily in recent years and will account for more than 40% of UK students in 2023/24.

About a quarter of the student population commutes, says Nick Weise, who runs the university’s commuter peer mentoring program.

The new venue, which opens at the end of 2024, is designed to be a “home away from home”, he says.

“Some of the feedback we received was that commuters should arrive maybe an hour early in case of traffic or delays.

“Even if the first lesson was at 09.00, they would come at 08.00 and they had nowhere to go. They were wandering the streets.

“We now have a little lounge where they can come from 8 a.m. and get some rest, get off and recharge and store their food.”

He says it’s important for commuters to have somewhere they can be between classes, given that some students take multiple buses and trains each day to get to university from Morecambe or Derby.

According to Amelka, this is “one of the best things that could happen” at college.

“I live there, it’s my home,” he says.

“[Without it] I have nowhere to go except the library, but you can’t really socialize in the library.

“You can always walk in at the lounge, chat to a random person and you’ll always have something in common because that person commutes. You can complain about bus strikes, train delays, odd disruptions.

“Everyone loves it, it’s perfect.”

Every day, come rain or shine, Amelka leaves her mother’s house around 7 a.m. and makes the 25-minute journey to the train station.

It takes a further 25 minutes by train to reach Manchester Oxford Road station before a half-hour walk to the other side of campus for the day’s first lecture.

He often stays at the suburban lounge after his classes to socialize or study, normally leaving when the venue closes at 6pm and arriving home around 8pm.

She says it was worth it and her mental health has improved thanks to regular sunlight and the 15,000 steps she walks each day.

However, there are also disadvantages.

“It’s much harder to socialize while commuting,” he says.

“The social life of most students I meet is going to clubs, going to bars, coming to each other’s lounges late at night. It’s all nightlife.

“This hour and a half commute at midnight is not safe for me.”

But he made many friends through the university’s suburban student network; She made nearly 40 friends from just one group chat.

“At the beginning of college, I felt so left out and so anxious about making friends,” she says.

“I’m a lot more confident now.”

He says he’s still working on his options for next year and everything is still on the table, including a one-year stay.

“There were many times when my train, which was supposed to arrive every half hour, hadn’t arrived for two hours,” he says.

“So I think about it, I live with my friends.

“But I also got a three-year rail pass, so I need to get my money’s worth.”