South West Local Learning and Employment Network (SWLLEN) chief executive officer Toni Jenkins said university students were having to find work to meet the costs associated with university life.

"All students should have the choice to work," she said. "It's not a choice for rural and regional people ? it's a matter of survival."

Deakin law student Matt Turner felt the pressure to find work to subsidise his studies so he could pay for basics like rent and food. "I think that Youth Allowance is not enough to live on," he said.

"You definitely have to work or get help from your parents.

"I have two jobs. I work probably 20 to 30 hours a week depending on my roster. (Having to work) creates inequalities between students who can afford not to work and those who can't. I do think it compromises my studies."

But finding work may be just as much of a struggle for students as affording university.

"Of course that's if they can get a job as they have no community and/or established networks," Ms Jenkins said.

Ms Jenkins said that due to recent changes to the eligibility criteria for students receiving youth allowance, south-west Victorians would feel the sting when it came to deciding if they wanted to take on university studies.

"(The changes will be) lowering the aspirations of young people in secondary school, many of whom will decide that they just can't afford to go away to uni," she said.

"In the immediate though, it means confusion and uncertainty."