The Students’ Union appears confident that students will return to its bars despite raising the price of pints to cover increased spending on staff wages.
Nick Miao Co-Editor-in-Chief
A spokesperson for Students’ Union UCL confirmed that, over the summer, prices on 68 products sold behind bars have increased by an average of 15 pence, whereas the remaining 61 products have seen no changes ‘despite some increasing in cost to us.’
‘Overall across all products sold in our bars, prices have increased by an average of 8.2p – or 2.6%. Lower than the annual rate of inflation since August 2023.’
It noted that this was done to reflect an unexpected increase in spending on staff wages, which went up by 10% to £13.15 per hour in line with the London Living Wage.
‘We couldn’t absorb this increase ourselves and had to make small adjustments to our prices instead.’
The spokesperson added, ‘Students’ Union UCL bars are social enterprises – with any profit made put straight back into the budgets of the teams delivering front-line support to students and running student activities.
‘There are no other venues in London where your round of drinks helps fund the cost of producing Cheesegrater [sic] magazine. Dear Editor, drink elsewhere at your peril.’
Editor’s note: As the Union is a registered charity, every pint you buy at the bar helps fund all the things you love, hate, or love to hate about UCL, and that includes this very publication. For our sake, please continue to visit the Union bars.