Kiwi students ‘make compromises’ on food, finds study

Almost half of New Zealand university students risk going hungry, particularly those who share housing or live on campus, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

Research at the University of Auckland suggests that students are risking their grades, course attendance and physical and mental health by cutting fruit and vegetables from their diet, bingeing on cheap campus snacks or doing without meals altogether.  

Food’s escalating cost and lack of time to buy and prepare it are the biggest obstacles, the study found. Many cash-strapped students cope by eating more when food is plentiful. A minority rely on food banks and a few go dumpster diving.

Almost all students buy food when it is cheap and save it for later, regardless of their financial status.

The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, are based on survey responses from 347 mostly full-time domestic undergraduate students at the University of Auckland. Almost three-quarters lived on campus or in rental accommodation. Over half described their financial security as “borderline” and almost half reported net household earnings of less than NZ$500 (£217) a week.

The researchers classified 45 per cent of the respondents as “food insecure”, with “limited or uncertain access to nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate food”. Of these, some 80 per cent stretched food to “make it last longer”, avoided certain foods or went without entirely.

“Many students are juggling high living costs, limited income and study demands,” said lead author Berit Follong, a nutritionist and postdoctoral research fellow at Auckland. “For some, food is where they make compromises.”

Research in other developed countries has garnered similar results, although findings vary widely. A 2025 review of 156 studies involving almost 750,000 university students, mostly in the US, estimated average food insecurity rates of about 42 per cent. An Australian study found that rates had increased from 42 per cent in 2022 to 53 per cent in 2024.

The Auckland study found that around three-quarters of the “food-secure” students lived in their family homes. The parental environment “acts as a kind of safety net”, Follong said. “Food is simply more available compared with living away from home.”

The paper recommends a “multilevel approach” to addressing students’ food insecurity, starting with education on budgeting and cooking skills. But more is needed, it warns. “Ultimately, structural changes like pricing policies, financial support mechanisms and healthier food retail environments are essential to address the root causes and broader institutional or societal factors that perpetuate food insecurity.”

Meanwhile, research for New Zealand’s Green Party has found that food insecurity among university students “increased markedly” between 2019 and 2025, as evidenced by “sustained growth” in reliance on the food banks run by five student associations.

The study was undertaken by Anika Texley, a politics and philosophy undergraduate at the University of Otago, as part of an internship with Dunedin Green MP Francisco Hernandez. It found that despite “sharp increases” during the coronavirus pandemic, reliance on food banks had persisted.

“Student poverty is a structural issue rather than a temporary…or region-specific problem,” the paper suggests. “Underlying cost-of-living pressures and stagnant welfare and income provisions continue to drive material hardship in students.

“Student poverty is not the result of temporary shocks or budgeting failures, but rather the predictable outcome of long-term neoliberal restructuring of…New Zealand’s tertiary education system.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com