The rise of the commuter student

Commuter students are ‘students who continue to live at home whilst studying, rather than relocating to attend university’ (Kenyon, 2024). Nationally, around half of home students in UK HE are commuter students (Kenyon, 2025). The proportion of commuter students has been increasing year on year, in response to the widening participation agenda in UK HE. It is likely to continue to increase, in response to demographic and structural changes following the Covid pandemic and on-going cost-of-living crises.

In 2024, the Office for Students (OfS) added commuter students to the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register. This policy change reflected an increasing body of evidence from across the UK showing that commuter students are a) increasing in number and b) experiencing inequality of opportunity in Higher Education.

Commuter students can have a poorer student experience and outcomes than their residential counterparts. One reason for this is that university pedagogies, policies and processes are designed for the traditional, residential student, who lives on campus or close to their learning and for whom Higher Education is an immersive experience. They do not meet the needs of commuters, who must travel to access learning and for whom studying is just a part of their busy lives.

This workshop presents the case for reshaping HE for commuter students, presenting practical examples of changes that HELOA delegates can make to embed support for commuters in their activities. Taking the example of a major project at Canterbury Christ Church University, delegates will be encouraged to consider the changes they can make, to encourage a positive experience for commuter students at their institutions.