Is the New Student Meal Plan Really Worth It?
Early in the 2026 academic year, during the University’s first semester, the University of Glasgow announced that it would be offering meal plans for students on the UofG Living website. This would cost students £720 per semester – working out to £70 per week – to be spent at any University catering outlets such as the Tinderbox, Coffee House, the Library Cafe and five others. While the University stated this would “take the stress out of eating, offering a convenient and affordable way to enjoy delicious, freshly cooked meals”, myself and other students feel this takes away from the traditional university experience of self-catering.
Following the example of many other UK universities, such as the University of Edinburgh, who offer a similar meal plan alongside catered accommodation, the advantages to using a student meal plan are clear. Roughly 10% of students allegedly never cook for themselves at university, with large numbers of those who do relying on convenience food and other unhealthy options.
The University of Glasgow’s meal plan would solve this problem, ensuring students who lack cooking skills receive the nutritious meals they need from places like the James McCune Smith Learning Hub, offering a wide range of delicious choices.
However, there are concerns that the meal plan would pose major limitations to students who chose to use it. For example, preventing them from learning to cook, a vital life skill which they’d likely use all their lives. The meal plan also being far more expensive than self-catering, which only costs students £34 a week on average, may seem unappealing to students on strict budgets.
Additionally, I feel meal plans may ‘Americanise’ the university experience for many students. In the United States, only a mere 40.3% of university students cook for themselves with nearly all accommodation being catered for all four years of most degrees. However, poor nutrition is still such a prevalent issue among American university students; only 27% describing their nutrition as “good”, some universities have even created programmes for students teaching them to cook simple, healthy meals for themselves
Still, the University of Glasgow’s new meal plan could be massively beneficial to students who are short on time, given that most catering outlets are easily accessible from the campus or student accommodation. For students with demanding workloads who are unable to meal prep, the meal plan could be a life saver, allowing them to focus on school work and other important tasks. However, this would only massively benefit third and fourth year students and not first and second. With less academic stress, I’d argue that second and first year students should hone their life skills while they have the chance.
While the new meal plan would undoubtedly benefit some students who lack time or cooking skills, it does not benefit the majority of Glasgow’s student body. The cost alongside losing the chance to develop important life skills does not suit the needs of most students, though posing the risk of poor nutrition. However overall, the decision to use the meal plan is subjective to the individual student’s needs at university, be it for new experiences making homemade food or simple convenience.
