GB’s Best Universities for Student Drivers

When you’re deciding which university is right for you, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the different factors you need to consider, including the courses available and the accommodation options. But if you’re a car owner planning to bring your car along to your new location, you might also be curious about whether the area is student-driver-friendly. From fuel and insurance prices to traffic flow and parking availability, this can influence your decision, since it affects your time and spare cash as a student.

To find out where the top-scoring and lowest-scoring universities for student drivers are, we’ve undertaken some research and collated all our findings right here.

What we did

To carry out this research, we started by gathering data on key factors that would deem a university suitable for student drivers. We’ve crunched the numbers and ranked the data findings on a unique scoring scale evenly distributed into 25 points per data point.

The four data points we used are as follows:

• Traffic Score (/25): Traffic flow (motor vehicle flow) in the university’s surrounding local authority.
• Fuel Cost Score (/25): The average fuel costs in the county where the university is based.
• Insurance Cost Score (/25): Average car insurance cost for young adults for the postcode area of the university.
• Parking Score (/25): Parking availability within a 15-minute walk from the university address.

We then added these together, giving us a final ‘student driver score’ out of 100.

Best universities for student drivers

Overall, which university has the best score for student drivers? We won’t keep you guessing for long – you can see all the top scorers below.

We found that Bangor University in Wales is the best university in Great Britain for student drivers. According to our unique index, this university has a total student driver score of 69/100, performing well across all categories except for parking. This was followed by Aberystwyth University at 67/100, which scored highly on traffic and insurance but lower on fuel costs and parking.

Bangor & Aberystwyth’s high scores in traffic, fuel costs and insurance reflect its location in a rural part of Wales with less congestion than many other large university cities. Wales has a relatively lower cost of living compared to England, and the lower population also means there are fewer cars on the road, which explains the high scores within our traffic and fuel  data points.

Among top-scoring universities for student driving, parking seemed to be a universal challenge since most scores in the parking category are very low. Only the University of Bristol and University of the West of England have a relatively high parking score (7) versus the others . So, if you’re fussy about parking, these might be better universities for you to consider applying to.

Lowest-scoring universities for student drivers  

At the other end of the scale, the following universities had the lowest overall scores according to our research, earning them a spot on this list.

Richmond American International University ranks as the lowest-scoring university for student drivers, with a total student driver score of 18/100. It scores very poorly in traffic (1/25) and insurance costs (1/25), although parking is slightly better (8/25).

Guildhall School of Music and Drama came in second in our index, with a score of 20. Its low insurance score (1/25) and parking (3/25) were key factors for its poor ranking. This was tied with Imperial College London and Royal College of Music, sharing similar scores in traffic and fuel costs, while all having very low insurance and parking scores.

King’s College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) tied for fifth place with a score of 24. Their traffic scores (11/25) ranked higher than others, but a poor insurance score (1/25) pulled down their overall ranking.

London’s higher cost of living is significantly reflected in fuel costs and car insurance costs. For fuel costs in particular, a key factor is likely to be the limited number of fuel stations within central London, coupled with the lack of competition and convenience factors, resulting in fuel price hikes.

Best universities for term-time parking

Term-time parking availability can depend on multiple factors, such as how many students commute by car, the size of the university and how busy the surrounding area is.

Queen Mary University of London stood out as the best university for parking options, with 60 options within a 15-minute walk away for a term-time date and a maximum parking score of 25.

Perhaps surprisingly, London Metropolitan University ranked second with 45 parking options and a parking score of 19, showing a notable drop in both metrics from first place.

London-based universities may face space constraints due to their location in the capital city. For this reason, those who regularly travel to London, such as students, are likely to rely more on those who rent out parking spaces if they’re planning to drive. Since the data for the index was from a platform that includes spaces that people are renting out, this may explain why London universities are highlighted as good for parking, as renting out parking spaces is common here. However, these can come at a premium depending on how central the parking is, so this is something else to consider.

Best universities for fuel prices

 As a student, you might be worried about needing to fork out a premium for your fuel in certain areas. So, without further ado, here are the best universities for fuel prices.

Queen Margaret University ranks first with the lowest average county fuel price of 136.85 pence per litre (PPL) and the highest fuel price score of 25.

Five universities tied for second place, each having a score of 20/25, including Bath Spa University, University of Bath, University of Bristol, University of the West of England and Bangor University.

A total of 10 universities share the third spot, with fuel prices ranging from 141.48 PPL to 141.68 PPL, and all have a fuel price score of 18/25. Some notable universities in this group include Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Brighton, University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University.

Fuel prices can fluctuate based on the availability of fuel stations, convenience and government policies, which might be why you can find good fuel prices dotted around Great Britain’s universities.

Best universities for traffic

Being stuck in traffic when you’re trying to make it to a lecture or seminar can be less than ideal, which is why we’ve also explored which universities have a better traffic flow.

Aberystwyth University, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and University of the Highlands and Islands all have the highest score of 25. Aberystwyth University and Wales Trinity Saint David had an average annual traffic flow of 915 and Highlands and Islands at 1,055. These universities are in more rural, less densely populated areas, which is likely the reason for the low traffic levels.

Bangor University holds the second position with a traffic flow of 1,498. Bangor is a smaller city, which, although busier than the rural universities, still sees moderate traffic due to it being smaller.

University of Cumbria is ranked third, with a traffic flow of 1,829 and a score of 23/25.

From this data, it seems that those looking for a university with low traffic should focus their search in rural areas of Scotland, Wales or the north of England. 

Best universities for student drivers: per region

Trying to choose a student-driver-friendly region? Check out our map below to find out which regions are home to the best universities for student drivers.

Universities located in more rural or less urban areas generally scored higher, likely due to offering less traffic congestion and more affordable fuel pricing. Meanwhile, universities in more densely populated or urban regions tended to score lower overall, although parking options were better in these locations, likely due to more people renting out spaces.

Explore all data

Below you can delve into our full report of the data we uncovered during our research into the best universities for student drivers in Great Britain.

Click here for the full report

We hope you’ve enjoyed these insights into the best universities for student drivers. For more automotive tips, advice and expertise, check out the JTAPE blog.

 

Sources & Additional Information 

• Traffic: Gov UK Road Traffic Estimates (motor vehicle flow by local authority for traffic flow). 2023 data for each university’s local authority/council. County councils were used if district council data wasn’t available.
• Fuel Price: FleetNews Fuel Price resource, using county data to work out an average of petrol & diesel PPL combined.
• Parking: YourParkingSpace used. Manual gathering of the number of parking spaces available for a set date and time in October (Term-time day), within a 15-minute walk from the university address.

• Insurance Cost: Confused.com Car Insurance Price Index, using insurance costs for 17–20-year-olds for the postcode area of the university, working out the average of males & females combined to create an average for the final figure. 

All data from the index was available online and correct at the time of research. The data is subject to change, particularly for data points that change regularly such as fuel price, insurance costs and parking availability. Addresses and postcodes used for any locational data aligned with the first address appearing on the Google Business Profile for the university. This is light-hearted research around how universities level up against each other hypothetically for student drivers, and data does not reflect universities’ actual driving or parking policies.