A UNIVERSITY student says she was “half starving” and living off out of date food as crippling costs left her unable to afford to live in Colchester.

Students at Essex University have spoken about how the cost of living crisis has impacted them.

Katherine Bunster, second year journalism and criminology student at the Essex University, spoke to the LDRS from her home in Norway, having flown back to work so she can afford student life.

“I was looking and praying that the groceries wouldn’t add up to more than £20 because I know that I wouldn’t be able to afford it,” she said.

Her tuition fees which site at £17,700 are nearly double what her British course mates are charged.

She said: “My parents were up here in Norway and they really didn’t like the fact that I was half starving just to be able to afford my life in the UK.”

Finding a part time job is more difficult for international students, because the number of hours they are allowed to work is capped.

She said: “I went a lot to the reduced parts of supermarkets and I’m completely sure I must have gotten sick so many times from the veggies or the things being out of date and I’d still try to consume them because it was cheaper than buying new.”

Katherine, who lives on the Colchester campus, has managed to find a part time job in a bakery in Colchester.

George Curley, a multimedia journalism student at the university, said: “I think there’s quite a big difference between living and existing.

“I’ll stick out my course here for three years, but I don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone to be honest.

“Mentally, students can’t get to sleep at night because they don’t know when the next bill’s going to come in.”

A university spokesman said in a statement: “The cost of living crisis in the UK is impacting all of us and we are working really hard to support our students to still get the most from their university experience.”

According to a joint statement by SU President Nashwa Alsakka and Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Madeline Eacott, the university has now announced extra support, including increasing the university’s hardship fund from £489,000 to £1.5million.

It is also reducing the cost of essentials for sale in the Students’ Union, providing free food in weekly “warm spaces” and scrapping resit fees.