Study title

The study charted the subsistence, employment and housing of university students in the capital region in Finland. The study was funded by the Student Union of the University of Helsinki and the Student Union of Aalto University. First, the respondents were asked questions relating to student grant. The questions focused on, for example, whether the respondents had received student grant for the degree they were studying for and if not, why (e.g. because of too large income or too few study credits), as well as whether the months of student financial aid available for them had been or would be sufficient for their bachelor's and master's degrees. The respondents were also asked whether they felt it was easy or hard for them to sufficiently progress in their studies (approximately 5 study credits per month) to qualify for student financial aid as well as how they were planning to fund their studies if they could not receive student financial aid any longer (e.g. by working, with savings, with the help of their family or spouse). Next, questions relating to student loan were presented. The respondents were asked whether they had taken out student loan and why (e.g. to secure income, to improve standard of living, for investing). They were also asked whether changes such as student financial aid cuts, reduction in the maximum number of months student financial aid was available and the transfer to general housing allowance for accommodation costs had had an impact on their need to take study loan. Employment and other sources of income were examined with questions concerning the amount of time the respondents worked at present or had worked during the past school year. If the respondents had not worked, they were asked whether they would have wanted to. The respondents were asked about the most important reason for working during their studies (e.g. for work experience or networking) and how they thought working would affect the progress of their studies. Some...