Homelessness and food bank use soars among Scottish students as poverty levels the 'worst' in memory

The “very real” pressures were laid bare on Wednesday by a group of principals who were giving evidence to MSPs on Holyrood’s education committee.

John Mason, a member of the committee, asked about a recent study which found 61 per cent of Scottish students in further education were experiencing financial difficulty during their current course.

Joanna Campbell, chair of the College Principals Group and principal of Dumfries and Galloway College, said the figure was likely to be an underestimate.

“I actually think that statistic is probably lower than the reality, and certainly the situation that I am faced with in my college is students stating that poverty is impacting on their ability to learn,” she said.

“And my college isn’t unique in providing this in any way, because I know that other colleges approach this in a similar way, but we put on free breakfasts, we’ve done that since 2017. We put on lunch for our students as well.

“The students’ association do a whole host of work supporting students, whether it be through food banks or whether it be working through local organisations to offer discounts.

“But the reality of the situation is that we are seeing more homelessness among our student body, and we’re certainly see students who have been impacted by poverty more so now than we’ve seen in any of the years gone by. So it is a very real issue.”

Neil Cowie, principal of North East Scotland College, said he did not have hard evidence in relation to homelessness, but was interested in finding out about the level of so-called “sofa surfing”.

“Student kitchens, student pantry - food flies out the door quicker than we can stock it. So we are now having to put in additional support, and thankfully that is done through the student association, who are doing a great job,” he said.

“And of course, like Joanna’s college, we’ve been offering free breakfasts for quite a considerable time.

“That is a very different position to what we were probably like five or 10 years ago.”

Audrey Cumberford, principal of Edinburgh College, was asked about “digital poverty”, a lack of access to digital devices and internet connections.

She said: “Going through the pandemic put a spotlight on digital poverty. It was always there but going through the pandemic really shone a light on some really challenging situations our students are in.

“Digital poverty in my own college is as much an issue as the cost of living, just being fed, actually eating. It’s the basics - it’s the eating, it’s the heating.

“It’s the being able to afford to travel to get to college in the first place. I’ve shared some frustrations in the Edinburgh area that there is free bus travel to students but you have to be 22-years old or less.

“And the average age of a college student, and there are 30,000 of them in Edinburgh going through Edinburgh College, is closer to 32 as opposed to 22.

“There are some policy interventions that could be thought about more carefully when it comes to the make up of a student body in a college.”