Kingston students are turning to side hustles as part-time jobs fail to cover rent.
Popular self-made businesses, such as renting cars or baking cakes, that people may start as a hobby, have become a necessity for some students to help cover daily expenses like rent, food, and bills while studying.
According to NatWest, the average monthly student rent in the UK is now £562.67, a figure that rises significantly in London. With part-time work increasingly falling short for many undergraduates, as a result, research done by Here! Student Living shows that 45.5% of students take on side hustles in addition to traditional part-time jobs to cover day-to-day expenses.
A side hustle is typically defined as a self-managed source of income, such as running a small business or providing a freelance service, that runs alongside studies or part-time work and provides more flexibility than contract employment.
“I’ve always enjoyed baking, so it definitely started off as a hobby, and then I got really good at it, so I started my own cake decorating business based in Surrey. Big orders for weddings and festivities started coming in, so I expanded and started providing luxury acrylic event signage, personalised gifts, ring plates, and hampers,” former KU student, Baaria Malik, said.
Financial pressures are increasing as rent, food prices, and energy bills rise. Forcing students to consider alternative sources of income often requires them to figure out how to balance academics, part-time jobs, businesses, and a social life.
“My small businesses may have started as hobbies, but they gradually progressed to my main source of income, helping me commute and help my parents out,” Baaria Malik, added.
The advantage? These small businesses often turn into traditional full-time jobs with a steady income.
“A friend and I started a car rental business called SwiftKeys while we were both still studying at Kingston University. We knew it would be difficult to stay consistent between our studies and our business, and I found myself having to make sacrifices in my social life so I could dedicate more time to building the business and accommodate clients,” Bashir Elmalieh, a KU alumni said. “Safe to say, we don’t regret any sacrifice because now our car rental business has become our full-time job as graduates”.
Students are now opting for side hustles as a more efficient source of income when traditional part-time jobs become unreliable; with unpredictable and capped hours, long shifts clashing with study time, and overworking while salaries are barely keeping them afloat, students turn to entrepreneurship to protect not just their bank balance but their overall well-being.
This trend of university students becoming young entrepreneurs demonstrates not only how students are coping with the rising cost of living crisis, but also how young people are launching careers and reshaping how they earn money despite traditional jobs.
“I feel like the idea of a “traditional” job never appealed to me; it never sounded fair, and it just seems like a system that always limits how much you can earn, whereas with a business, the more work I put in, the more it pays off. When I gain my clients’ trust and demonstrate that I own a reputable business, my marketing takes off and I begin to profit. I decide how much work I do and when I do it; the more money I make, the more effort I put in. I have my own system set up,” Elmalieh added.
