This paper focuses on one aspect of student life, namely housing circumstances. It explores the housing careers and strategies developed by students over the course of their university career, in relation to levels and sources of nancial support and aspects of the transition towards independence. It argues that students develop important new skills or adult competencies as they negotiate their way through the housing market, so improving the quality of their accommodation. However, the quality and condition of some student housing was an issue of concern; this was most acutely observed for vulnerable students including those making the rst move from the parental home into the private rented sector, and those on limited budgets. There is found to be differential exposure to risk within the student housing market, which is structured by parental af uence and support as well as by the particular labour and housing market contexts of the university locality.

This article seeks to explore the ways in which the current nancial regime for supporting students impacts on the choices they make while studying for their rst degree. It focuses particularly on the nancial choices students make (or feel forced to make) in relation to work, debt and economising. It argues that the degree of discretion that students have is crucially related to the nancial support they receive from their parents. However, even where parents are generous, most students seek an additional source of income to increase their autonomy in spending decisions. Parental attitudes are found to be important determinants of the ordering of drawing on other income. There is found to be a nancially vulnerable group of students whose fragile nancial position largely results from their parents being unable to offer much nancial support; this group in particular nds their time at university characterised by considerable amounts of paid work and increasing debt.