Financial Precarity and Psychological Wellbeing in Higher Education: A Qualitative Study of UK University Students

Abstract

Financial precarity has become an increasingly prominent feature of the contemporary higher education experience, with growing evidence linking financial hardship to adverse psychological outcomes for students. This study explored how undergraduate students at a post-1992 United Kingdom university experience and make sense of financial precarity and its relationship with psychological wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine undergraduates and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes were generated: financial shock and structural unpreparedness, financial precarity as a cognitive burden, embodied stress and psychological strain, social restriction and altered student experience, and stigma and barriers to help-seeking. Financial precarity emerged as pervasive and multidimensional, shaping cognitive functioning, wellbeing, and academic and social engagement. Findings indicate that institutions should strengthen pre-enrolment financial guidance, integrate financial and wellbeing support services, actively reduce the stigma of financial hardship, and build awareness among academic staff of the structural barriers facing widening participation students.