St Catharine’s College has partially reversed plans to increase students’ rents floated earlier this year.

Previously, the College was intending to raise rents by 6% across the board. This has now been reduced to 5%, saving students “around £55 per year”, according to an email sent by the JCR to students last Friday (20/05).

The new figure is lower than the 7.5% increase announced by Churchill College earlier this year, and the 6% rise being implemented by Gonville & Caius College.

The news comes as the cost of living continues to rise, while the maximum student maintenance loan is set to increase by just 2.3% in the coming academic year.

Although the increase still larger than at some colleges, with rents at Magdalene set to rise by only 3%, the College is also creating two new bursaries, aimed at supporting students during the cost of living crisis.

One will be “linked to the Cambridge bursary”, and issued to students automatically. Another is intended to help students who constitute the “squeezed middle”.

Details of these have not been announced yet, but the JCR and senior tutor are set to confirm the policy before students leave for summer.

Despite this degree of uncertainty, the JCR has assured students that “there will be a mechanism for students to receive money before they come to college”.

The committee also claimed to be “ensuring” that applying for the “squeezed middle” bursary, which is not distributed automatically, would not be “arduous”.

The new measures are the result of extended negotiations between the JCR and the college.

Members of the JCR committee told Varsity that engagement from the College had been strong, with “pretty much everyone except the Master” talking directly to committee members, and other members of the JCR.

Regarding more long-term aims, the JCR told students that they were looking into advertising the financial assistance offered by College more effectively, as well as “destigmatising discussion of finances”, as the cost of living crisis drags on.