The independent youth research agency Red Brick Research conducted a nationwide survey of nearly 5000 students across the United Kingdom. The survey, carried out in March 2015, highlights new insights for the general election in May. If all students vote this year, it has an effect on the size of parliamentary - however, only one in four students are certain to vote.
Key facts
The major findings of the survey include the following points: the Labour party has the highest share of student votes at 37%. However, the Green party that reaches 26% of student support closely follows the Labour party.
This is a huge success for the Greens, since it is a record high for them. The Conservatives take the third place with 24%. In contrast, the share of students who are supporting the Liberal Democrat and the UKIP lies only around 5%. All in all, the percentage of students who are certain to vote lies around 31%. Thus, 70% of students in the United Kingdom are not certain to vote, which is a very high proportion.
Difference between female and male students
Other findings of the survey are that there are differences in the electoral behaviour between female and male students. Female students tend to support less the Conservatives than male students. For example, female students support them with 22%, in contrast, male students support them with 27%.
Moreover, female students support the Green party with 28%, whereas male students only support the Greens with 23%. Overall, 4,710 students, who are currently studying in higher education in the United Kingdom and who are eligible to vote in the 2015 general election, participated in this survey.
Prospect for the election in May 2015
The general elections 2015 are taking place on the 7th of May in order to elect the 56th Parliament of the United Kingdom.
However, students are only going to make a difference in this years election, if they cast a ballot. The result from the survey is that only one out four students are certain to vote, which makes a significant impact difficult.
