Choosing whether to stay near to home or travel away is a big decision that depends on a whole range of factors, and only you can decide which is best for your circumstances. To help you make up your mind some of these are listed below:

Staying at home

Some people choose to stay at home and study close to where they live which means that they can save on accommodation and living costs and be near to family and friends with all the added support that they may give.

Going away

However, if you choose to go away to study, accommodation is nearly always provided in the first year by the university and for further years students often choose to share a house or flat with friends, this can be a cheaper option as well as being good experience of living independently, learning to cook and clean and taking care of bills.

Average costs for accommodation near to the local universites can vary from around £50-60 per week in a shared house. It costs around £50-£80 for university halls of residence, depending on whether it it catered or not (catered is more!). Students wanting to study in London would have to pay more with Halls costing around £80-£100 per week.

Students living in a shared private house will also need to budget for bills such as gas, electricity, water and tv licence. Students don't have to pay council tax though.

find out more about living costs

University support

Whatever you choose to do there is always support from the university. The services usually include health care, financial services, counselling, careers information, disability information and accommodation services.

Find out more...

Follow the links on the right to find out more from current and recent students as they talk about the choices they made on whether to stay at home or study away.

The websites of the four local higher education institutions have information on the accommodation available when studying:

Edge Hill

Liverpool Hope University

Liverpool John Moores University

University of Liverpool