Students outside of London face an income shortfall in excess of £8,000 according to new analysis by the National Union of Students (NUS).

The NUS claims that many students will have to make up thousands of pounds out of their own pockets because of the substantial difference between the financial support on offer and the cost of living.

The average cost of living for a non-London student worked out at £16,279 for 2011-2012, while the average income from government loans and grants was just £8,242. This is a shortfall of £8,037 – a 10% increase on the 2010-11 figure of £7,300.

London students may face costs of £17,428, higher than non-London students; but with higher potential income from loans and grants of £9,980, the shortfall is lower than that of non-London students, at £7,548.

Cost of living figures include expenses such as tuition fees, books, travel, food and rent.

Liam Burns, President of NUS responded to the shortfall in support of students: “Not enough of the student support in the higher education system is getting into the pockets of students, and there is a real danger that the situation is getting worse.

“There has been a shocking leap in the gap between government funding and the cost of being a student.”

CUSU President Gerard Tully told Varsity that: “The truth is that the student finance scheme nationally does let too many students fall through the cracks, but the wide-ranging support schemes at Cambridge do much to mitigate this.

“The more pressing issue for Cambridge is that this provision varies greatly between colleges, and this inequality can in some cases affect the quality of someone’s educational experience.”