Statement: A fight for survival or a fight for students?
Student livelihoods must be secure year-round. Summer must not become a battle in which only the fortunate survive!
Summer 2026 looks less like a time for recovery and more like a struggle for survival for many students. A recent survey by OYY paints a staggeringly grim picture of the situation. Students’ livelihoods have been pushed into a state of crisis, further worsened by the weak employment situation. The current system is failing those who are meant to become the future experts and builders of society.
Many students would like to work over the summer to save for the coming academic year and to cover everyday expenses such as rent and food. While the employment situation is weak across the country, it affects students particularly harshly. Half of the respondents reported that they had not secured any summer employment at all. The job market has grown more fickle, and competition for the few available positions is fierce. When there are no jobs and no access to benefits, students are left without any means to secure their livelihood. This is not an individual failure but a structural, societal issue. It is unreasonable to ask how students are expected to survive when the system offers no realistic alternatives.
The transition to the student housing supplement system in autumn 2025 has reduced financial support for every other student. During the summer months, the housing supplement cannot be claimed without summer studies, yet the availability of such studies is limited in many fields or does not meaningfully contribute to degree progress. In practice, only a small number of students can receive student financial aid during the summer. As a result, students are also unable to claim the housing supplement. Summer expenses are expected to be covered through summer jobs that in the current job market do not exist. How, then, are students supposed to pay for housing and food? Are they expected to take on even more student loans just to cover rent? Why are students the only group expected to life off debt?
Particularly concerning is that some students are forced to terminate their apartment leases and move back to their hometowns because they cannot afford rent without income or support. This is also a matter of wellbeing and coping. Two respondents of the survey reported that they would have to move back in with their parents for the summer and give up their apartments. Constant moving puts a strain on wellbeing and can exacerbate mental health challenges. No one should have to lose their home simply because the job market is weak and the student financial aid system fails to reflect students’ lived realities.
The situation students are facing is not an isolated anomaly, but part of a broader trend in which the position of young people and students has weakened year by year. When students’ livelihoods erode, the consequences are felt across society with a delay: prolonged studies, burnout, marginalization and a shortage of future professionals. We cannot afford a system where summer becomes an annual survival struggle for students. Student livelihoods must be secure year-round. Summer must not become a battle in which only the fortunate survive. This is not about luxury or additional benefits, but about basic security that allows to cover everyday living costs.