Halls vs Loanwhat student rent leaves you to live on

University of Sussex: halls vs the loan

The cheapest standard self-catered room University of Sussex publishes costs £123 a week, up to £236 for the dearest (2026/27). The maximum maintenance loan outside London is £10,830 a year — £208 a week across a full year.

£123/week cheapest published self-catered room · 2026/27

The numbers

Cheapest self-catered room£123/week
Dearest standard room£236/week
Typical contract39 weeks
Cheapest room, whole contract£4,805
Dearest room, whole contract£9,192
Max maintenance loan (outside London, 2026/27)£10,830/year
Cheapest hall as share of max loan44%

All campus accommodation is self-catered. Low = Norwich House shared bathroom £123.20; Lewes Court standard £132.58. High = West Slope en-suite £235.69. Mid-range: Stanmer Court/Lewes Court en-suite £205.80, East Slope/Northfield/Swanborough en-suite £221.27. Prices are stated as 'guidelines for the 2026/27 academic year'. Contract length is not on the pricing page: 39 weeks for UG (50-51 weeks PG) per Sussex accommodation policy pages.

What's left after rent

Take the maximum loan, pay for the cheapest hall, and £6,025 remains for the year — £116 a week across 52 weeks for food, transport, books and everything else. Most students don't get the maximum loan: entitlement tapers with household income, so the real gap is usually wider and made up by part-time work or family.

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Universities that cost about the same

The 11 universities nearest University of Sussex on cheapest published room, plus the cheapest and dearest of all 37. The full table has every one.

UniversityFromTo % of max loan
University of Aberdeen£111£19141%
University of Portsmouth£115£20042%
Newcastle University£118£24343%
University of Southampton£118£23645%
University of Manchester£122£24646%
University of Sussex£123£23644%
University of Exeter£125£261
University of Leeds£125£22548%
Loughborough University£126£23748%
University of Essex£128£23846%
University of Kent£128£26345%
University of Bath£98£29534%
London School of Economics (LSE)£226£39179%

Questions

How much is student accommodation at University of Sussex?

University-published self-catered rooms run £123–£236 a week for 2026/27, on contracts of about 39 weeks.

Does the maintenance loan cover it?

The maximum loan (outside London) covers the cheapest hall with £6,025 a year to spare — but only at the maximum, which most students don't get.

Are these the private-sector rents too?

No — these are the university's own halls, from its own price list. Private halls and shared houses vary more in both directions; the university figures are the ones that are actually published and comparable.

Other universities

Rents read 18 August 2026 from sussex.ac.uk; loan maxima from GOV.UK. Loan entitlement depends on household income and where the student lives, not where the university is.

Rents checked 19 August 2026 from each university's own pricing pages; loans from GOV.UK. This is information, not financial advice.