University of Bristol students are accommodated in accommodation across the River Severn in Wales.
More than 120 freshmen live in Newport as the Bristol-based University of the West of England (UWE) runs out of accommodation.
Some of the students living in Wales say they miss out on the full university experience.
UWE says it organizes social events for them and is exploring ways to subsidize their travel.
A group of 127 students pay between £121 and £152 a week for a room in the Newport Student Village – 27 miles from UWE’s main campus.
The Newport Student Village is typically used by students from the University of South Wales, which has a campus in the city.
Reina Sniezek said: “It was difficult because of the prices of the trains and because of the distance I have to get up an hour earlier compared to other students who can wake up 10 minutes before their lectures.”
Students’ travel to UWE involves a 25-minute train ride from Newport to Filton Abbey Wood Station and then a bus to the Frenchay campus.
Johny Hughes said he felt it was “really difficult” for students living in Wales to socialize.
“Here in Newport there aren’t a lot of places to go out and in Bristol, at UWE, everyone goes out,” he said.
“If we wanted to go out [in Bristol] I think we’d have to get a Megabus home at 1 or 2 in the morning – that’s really not ideal.”
Prof Steve West, Vice-Chancellor of UWE said: “We work together with the students [in Newport]and student community that offers pizza nights and other fun evenings to give there a sense of community.”
He said hall representatives would be allocated to the Newport contingent and that UWE was working out a way to pay them additional funds to help with travel expenses.
900 student rooms will be built on the Frenchay campus, and the university plans to build enough housing for an additional 2,500 students over the next two years.
Nick Hillman of the Higher Education Policy Institute, an independent think tank, said the problem was partly due to Bristol’s popularity with students.
“It’s a wonderful place to live as a young student,” he said.
“That’s the main cause, but there are other factors, like the fact that there are more 18-year-olds this year than last year, which is a result of what happened to the birth rate a couple of years ago.
“I feel for these students because they live in Bristol, they want to study in Bristol and they find that they’re actually commuting from somewhere else.”
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