What would you do if you were financially struggling, but still hoped to further studies in uni?

Weigh out if it's really what you want to do and deal with the debt. That's what every non-privileged college student deals with and it's how things work in society at least in the US. It's a "pull yourself up by yourself" kind of society if you don't come from money. If you're going to school and you can find work after then you'll have some debt for a while and you just steadily pay it off.