| Commuting to Uni - not so new, or was I ahead of the times? Posted by grahame at 13:51, 11th January 2026 |     |
From The BBC
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 heading into work.
There isn't a suitable bus from her mum's house in Horwich, on the other side of Bolton, so she has just walked the 25 minutes to the station - as she does every morning - despite the freezing weather.
But Amelka isn't on her way to work. She's a first-year biology student, one of hundreds of thousands of undergraduates who now choose to live at home rather than paying for university halls
On a packed morning train to Manchester, 19-year-old Amelka Zambrzycka is surrounded by commuters heading into work.
There isn't a suitable bus from her mum's house in Horwich, on the other side of Bolton, so she has just walked the 25 minutes to the station - as she does every morning - despite the freezing weather.
But Amelka isn't on her way to work. She's a first-year biology student, one of hundreds of thousands of undergraduates who now choose to live at home rather than paying for university halls
I can identify with this. I
Edit note: Two of grahame's trademark typos corrected, for clarity. CfN.
| Re: Commuting to Uni - not so new, or was I ahead of the times? Posted by bobm at 19:17, 11th January 2026 | |
I didn’t go to University - I had a place but had landed a well paid job and decided to stick with that.
However I did go to boarding school. Despite the increased cost, I think it was worth it and gave me a greater sense of confidence and independence. I could have been a day boy and indeed 45 years on there are pupils from the village where I lived making the daily trip. I also benefitted by having the option to used the three hours a day not travelling to take part in other activities.
As always, one size doesn’t fit all.
| Re: Commuting to Uni - not so new, or was I ahead of the times? Posted by Red Squirrel at 19:31, 11th January 2026 | |
I will suggest this to my son, though the practicalities of commuting from Montpelier to Penryn may be tricky and he may not save much money. He'd certainly have plenty of time to write up lecture notes though.
| Re: Commuting to Uni - not so new, or was I ahead of the times? Posted by Ralph Ayres at 20:34, 11th January 2026 | |
The (gradually-increasing, but still low) bus fare cap seem to have resulted in some ridiculously long journeys from west London to Hertfordshire Uni in Hatfield on (former Green Line) route 724. Now £6 a day rather than whatever student digs cost nowadays. Most of them appear to spend the near 2 hour journey catching up on sleep rather than studying.
I do feel a bit sorry for them. I started off living with my parents when studying at a then-polytechnic, at which commuting in was more normal than at a university. I fairly soon decided though that I was missing out on a significant part of student life, and put up with a succession of fairly dire but cheap bedsits to be closer.
| Re: Commuting to Uni - not so new, or was I ahead of the times? Posted by Oxonhutch at 20:53, 11th January 2026 | |
My 5 foot high (at the high point) basement squat was my cheapest, and lasted several months before being discovered and evicted. Spent most of my time at that home sitting or sleeping. It worked - sort of - when you are 5'11".
