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2 October 2026
29 September 20268 min read
UK Student Nightlife: How much does a Student Night Cost?
We ranked 56 UK university zones on the true cost of a student night out, from £29 in Liverpool to £59 in London.
Words by: Sixes Cricket
How Much Does a Student Night Out Really Cost?
Every student knows the drill: pre-drinks, club entry, a couple of rounds at the bar, a 2 am food stop, and the taxi or bus fare home.
The ‘standard’ student night out might look much the same wherever you study, but the price tag attached to it can vary hugely depending on your postcode.
That’s why we’ve put together the University Night Out Price Index, our new study ranking 56 UK university zones, covering 110 institutions, by the true cost of a typical student night out.
We looked at four things that make up most nights out: three pints, club entry, a two-mile taxi home, and late-night food, drawing on data from 554 pubs, 481 paid club nights, and 245 late-night restaurants across the country.
Each zone is scored from 0 to 100, with 100 marking the most expensive night out in the country.
Key Findings at a Glance:
- London is the UK’s most expensive university city for a night out, with a maximum index score of 100.
- Cheltenham comes in second (64.5 out of 100), despite being home to just one university, thanks to the highest late-night average food prices of any city in our top 15.
- Edinburgh ranks third and has the priciest clubs in the country at a median £12.50 a ticket, more than London’s £10.
- Liverpool, home to three universities, is the most affordable university zone for a night out, followed by Stoke-on-Trent.
- Newcastle upon Tyne pours the cheapest pint of any ranked university zone: three for £13.95, working out at around £4.65 each.
The UK’s Most Expensive City for a Student Night
As living costs eat further into maintenance loans and part-time wages, we wanted to find out just how differently students’ budgets stretch depending on where they study.
London has come out as the UK’s most expensive university zone for a night out, the only city in the country to hit the maximum score of 100. Its 23 institutions, including Imperial College London, King’s College London, UCL and the LSE, are pooled into a single market for our index, reflecting how freely students travel across the capital on a night out.
London also has the priciest pints in the country, with three costing £22.05, plus the highest two-mile taxi fare at £13.40 and a £10 median club entry fee. Add food to the mix, and a full night out in the capital comes to somewhere between £47.30 and £59.05: around 1.6 times, or 63% more, than the £29.07 low-end figure in Liverpool, our cheapest-ranked zone. London’s score of 100 is 35.5 points clear of the second-placed city, Cheltenham, on 64.5.
| Rank | Zone | Institutions | Index Score | Three Pints (£) | Club entry (£) | Taxi,two miles (£) | Food price level | *Food avg price band (£) | Night out incl. food, low (£) | Night out incl. food, high (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | 23 | 100.0 | £22.05 | £10.00 | £13.40 | 76.1 | £20.78 | £47.30 | £59.05 |
| 2 | Cheltenham | 1 | 64.5 | £19.28 | £10.00 | £8.90 | 84.8 | £23.14 | £44.14 | £49.23 |
| 3 | Edinburgh | 3 | 62.0 | £18.75 | £12.50 | £9.30 | 31.5 | £13.96 | £41.5 | £52.13 |
| 4 | Oxford | 2 | 60.1 | £19.58 | £10.00 | £8.10 | 60.5 | £18.76 | £40.77 | £49.44 |
| 5 | Cambridge | 2 | 58.4 | £19.50 | £10.00 | £8.60 | 41.2 | £16.71 | £43.80 | £49.60 |
| 6 | Guildford | 1 | 57.5 | £20.78 | £5.00 | £10.00 | 47.3 | £18.68 | £41.22 | £51.60 |
| 7 | Northampton | 1 | 51.2 | £18.60 | £10.00 | £7.20 | 67.2 | £20.65 | £37.25 | £47.04 |
| 8 | Bristol | 2 | 51.1 | £18.60 | £9.00 | £8.20 | 48.2 | £16.34 | £37.20 | £49.10 |
| 9 | Colchester | 1 | 50.6 | £18.45 | £10.00 | £8.40 | 42.1 | £16.38 | £43.45 | £48.70 |
| 10 | Bath | 2 | 47.8 | £20.03 | £5.50 | £7.50 | 54.0 | £19.80 | £35.92 | £48.73 |
| 11 | Ipswich | 1 | 47.3 | £17.40 | £10.00 | £8.10 | 64.9 | £19.08 | £40.42 | £51.66 |
| 12 | Canterbury | 2 | 46.3 | £20.10 | £4.00 | £7.40 | 75.0 | £22.31 | £35.82 | £48.93 |
| 13 | Belfast | 2 | 45.7 | £19.58 | £10.00 | £6.06 | 29.3 | £16.27 | £39.91 | £48.34 |
| 14 | Cardiff | 2 | 45.7 | £18.00 | £10.00 | £7.50 | 36.5 | £16.29 | £35.66 | £47.34 |
| 15 | Worcester | 1 | 44.7 | £17.70 | £10.00 | £6.90 | 62.1 | £19.21 | £40.75 | £50.20 |
How to read this: Institutions: How many university institutions the zone covers; Index score: 0 to 100, where 100 is the highest night-out cost; Three pints (£): Three times the median Guinness price in the zone; Club entry (£): Median paid ticket, with free nights excluded; Taxi, two miles (£): Two-mile daytime fare set by the licensing council; Food price level: 0 to 100 relative scale of late-night restaurant prices, not a price; *Food average price band: Mean per-person price band of the zone's late-night restaurants, a sit-down spend, not the cost of late-night food; Night out incl. food, low (£): Three pints, entry and taxi at the lower-priced quarter of the zone's prices, plus food at the national lower quartile; Night out incl. food, high (£): Three pints, entry and taxi at the higher-priced quarter of the zone's prices, plus food at the national upper quartile.
2. Cheltenham
Cheltenham ranks as the second most expensive zone for students, with a score of 64.5 out of 100, despite being home to just one university, the University of Gloucestershire. Three pints cost £19.28, and a two-mile taxi fare comes to £8.90, both cheaper than in London. However, Cheltenham has the highest late-night average food price band among our national top 15, at £23.14 compared with London's £20.78, which helps push the town higher up the ranking.
3. Edinburgh
Edinburgh takes third place with a score of 62 out of 100, the highest-ranked university zone outside England. It has the most expensive clubs of any ranked UK zone, with a median entry price of £12.50, though its pints (three for £18.75) are cheaper than London and Cheltenham.
4. Oxford
Oxford ranks fourth with a final index score of 60.1 out of 100. Home to both Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford, the area combines pricey pints, at £19.58 for three, with a £10 median club entry fee and an above-average food price band of £18.76. Together, these push Oxford just ahead of Cambridge for the more expensive end of the table.
5. Cambridge
Cambridge rounds out the top five with a score of 58.4 out of 100. Shared between the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, this zone has a three-pint cost of £19.50 and a median club entry fee of £10, while a two-mile taxi fare comes to £8.60.
The UK’s 15 Cheapest University Zones for a Night Out
| Rank | Zone | Institutions | Index score | Three pints (£) | Club entry (£) | Taxi, two miles (£) | Food price level | *Food avg price band (£) | Night out incl. food, low (£) | Night out incl. food, high (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 3 | 0.0 | £14.70 | £3.00 | £7.40 | 2.0 | £13.37 | £29.07 | £45.25 |
| 2 | Stoke-on-Trent | 1 | 15.4 | £14.70 | £10.00 | £5.90 | 0.0 | £11.68 | £34.03 | £44.30 |
| 3 | Salford | 1 | 15.6 | £15.15 | £7.00 | £6.60 | 11.1 | £13.50 | £32.30 | £52.52 |
| 4 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 2 | 16.0 | £13.95 | £8.00 | £6.20 | 58.7 | £19.83 | £31.00 | £44.50 |
| 5 | Bradford | 1 | 17.5 | £15.45 | £7.00 | £6.10 | 10.4 | £13.67 | £33.90 | £42.90 |
| 6 | Bolton | 1 | 17.6 | £15.75 | £7.50 | £6.00 | 10.5 | £12.79 | £28.74 | £42.80 |
| 7 | Southampton | 2 | 19.4 | £15.41 | £5.00 | £8.40 | 29.2 | £14.27 | £31.35 | £43.65 |
| 8 | Aberystwyth | 1 | 20.0 | £14.78 | £4.99 | £7.45 | 15.0 | £10.30 | £32.09 | £41.25 |
| 9 | Hull | 1 | 20.7 | £14.55 | £8.00 | £7.30 | 34.0 | £14.82 | £31.50 | £44.06 |
| 10 | Middlesbrough | 1 | 20.9 | £14.85 | £10.00 | £5.60 | 22.8 | £14.24 | £31.90 | £44.50 |
| 11 | Sheffield | 2 | 21.9 | £15.75 | £5.00 | £7.50 | 56.9 | £19.96 | £29.85 | £45.28 |
| 12 | Birmingham | 3 | 23.3 | £16.05 | £5.00 | £7.60 | 55.1 | £19.32 | £31.27 | £46.50 |
| 13 | Ormskirk | 1 | 24.7 | £17.10 | £4.99 | £5.20 | 42.2 | £16.33 | £29.20 | £38.94 |
| 14 | Huddersfield | 1 | 26.0 | £16.20 | £10.00 | £6.00 | 19.8 | £14.04 | £38.05 | £45.70 |
| 15 | Leicester | 2 | 27.1 | £17.10 | £5.00 | £7.80 | 34.4 | £15.77 | £34.30 | £45.87 |
Same measures as above, this time led by the zones where a student night out goes furthest.
1. Liverpool
Liverpool, home to three universities (the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Liverpool Hope), ranks as the UK’s cheapest university zone for a student night out. Three pints cost £14.70, among the lowest in the country, and club entry averages just £3, the lowest median ticket price of any ranked area. Combined with one of the lowest late-night average food price bands in the table (£13.37), that puts Liverpool at the very bottom of the index.
2. Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent, home to Staffordshire University, ranks as the UK’s second-cheapest university zone for a student night out, with an index score of 15.4. Three pints cost £14.70, level with Liverpool among the cheapest rounds in the country, and a two-mile taxi comes to just £5.90.
3. Salford
Home to the University of Salford, this area ranks as the UK’s third-cheapest university zone for a student night out, with a final score of 15.6 out of 100. Club entry averages £7.00 and a two-mile taxi costs £6.60, both among the lower fares in the ranking, while recording a late-night average food price band of £13.50, one of the lowest in this ranking.
4. Newcastle Upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, home to two universities, Newcastle University and Northumbria University, ranks as the UK's fourth-cheapest university zone for a student night out, with an index score of 16. Three pints here cost £13.95, the cheapest round of any ranked city in the index, and a two-mile taxi comes to £6.20.
5. Bradford
Bradford ranks as the UK's fifth most affordable university zone for a night out, securing an index score of 17.5. Three pints cost £15.45, and a two-mile taxi comes to £6.10, both towards the lower end for the bottom 15; combined with a late-night average food price band of £13.67, one of the lowest of any ranked city in the index.
Why the Student Night Out Cost Divide Matters
Calum Swan, Head of Operations at Sixes Cricket, shared his thoughts on what the findings mean for how and where students socialise:
“The gap between the cheapest and most expensive university night out spots in this study is more than a small change; at the extremes, the same basic night out can cost almost twice as much. With student budgets under pressure, the findings highlight just how much the cost of socialising can vary depending on where you study, and why students may be looking for ways to enjoy a night out without taking on the full price tag of a traditional bar and club night.”
Our Methodology in Brief
We built our University Night Out Price Index using Google Places venue data, Guinndex pint pricing, Fatsoma club ticket listings, Private Hire and Taxi monthly fare tables, and HESA institution data.
We drew a zone around each university’s campuses, matched and deduplicated venues so nothing was counted twice, and scored each zone across four weighted factors: pint price (40%), club entry (25%), taxi fare (20%) and food price level (15%), each standardised onto a 0 to 100 scale.
Zones needed at least three priced pubs, three paid club nights and three price-banded restaurants to qualify, and London’s boroughs were pooled into a single zone. Data was collected in September 2026 and is accurate as of then, though subject to change.
Wherever You Study, Explore Other Ways to Have a Big Night Out
Whichever university zone you call home, one thing is clear: a big night out doesn’t have to come with a big price tag attached.
At Sixes, we’ve built Party Cricket around exactly that idea: fast bowls, flowing drinks and big-hitting bites, all without the mark-up of a traditional bar and club night.
So whether you’re studying in London, Bristol or Bournemouth, take a swing at Party Cricket and see what a night out with your mates can look like when it doesn’t cost the earth. Get your society or student group down to Sixes and find out for yourself.
