to think that £500 a month is enough for a child at uni

I don’t think 500 is way too much. My daughter finished uni in 2015 and I sent her 80 a week even back then. Her loan didn’t cover the rent so we topped that up too and paid for clothes and mobile phone. One thing she didn’t want to do was to share a bathroom and we agreed so she had ensuite accommodation throughout. She worked in summer but to be fair to her saved some of that. Her course was full on and there was no way she could have worked in term time.

The main thing that galled me was that my friend who earned exactly the same as me had a daughter at uni at the same time and got the full maintenance loan and bursaries on top, all because mum was divorced. The fact that the ex husband earned well more than my DH didn’t come into it. She didn’t have to top up her daughter with money at all

Dd in brighton. Use storage in vacations. These guys collect for free and depending on size of locker is around 100 to 200 a month discounts paying up front etc https://www.henfieldstorage.co.uk/storage-units/brighton

Probably. Have they signed up with Uni Temps? Reasonable pay for events at the University, good work experience and convenient too.

Wow prices have changed since I was at college. I had the grant but didn't get anything from my parents and worked 30 hours a week on top of college. Wel prob help my son with fees but will definitely expect him to fund himself apart from food!

but will also presumably cover going out/socialising, clothes, travel back home, books, phone, exercise, toiletries etc .

I think it’s probably enough but don’t think it’s loads/a crazy amount.

She does but it only just covers her rent. Her rent is much higher than last year. She hasn’t managed to get a job. Her £50 covers food, going out (luckily she doesn’t drink) and any taxi/train fairs, she has a bus pass. I do pay for her mobile phone and I do her washing.

We paid accommodation and books. In Scotland, so fees paid by government. We gave them £10 per day and expected them to work to top it up if they wanted to. They also had student loans.

I was at university in the Seventies (pre-Thatcher). Tuition fees and some maintenance grant were paid by one of the more generous local education authorities, though my middle-class, reasonably affluent, parents were expected to top the means-tested grant up. I knew one person in my year whose parents refused to top up their grant, and they were the only person I knew who had to take a job during term-time. The rest of us were lucky in that we were supported by our parents, and also had a huge range of jobs to choose from to work at during the vacations (anyone remember doing the Christmas post?). I paid rent of £8.00 a week for an unheated, mouldy, manky, damp, basement flat-share, furnished with toads and silverfish. Times have definitely changed and when financing our daughter through university, we took that into account: there is no way we would have expected her to have a worse university experience than we did ourselves, despite university financing having changed so much since we were students.
I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to say here, except I think £500pm should be fine and does not make @FunnysInLaJardin's son a "spoilt rich kid" in today's world. A very fortunate kid, yes.

thanks! I also expect to pay around £1,000 a year for his flights

Is your child an international student? All of my lot were and my grandchildren will be as well.

The minimum loan is around £4500. That’s £500 pm over 9 months. He’s involved in uni sport so spends some of the holidays at uni for preseason training

@Lovemusic82 does she get a loan?

My dd is in her 2nd year and gets by on £50 a week, so £500 is more than enough.

Not really. A lot of responses are from people who wouldn't qualify for the full maintenance grant, if you are low income you get the full £11ishk anyway. If you have two full time working adults in the home chances are you'll only get minimum, in which case you have to make up the extra £7ishk pa. Different people have different affordability, and whilst most parents on this thread would acknowledge that sending a child to uni is bloody expensive, we have probably saved their whole lives to get them there and will be cutting the cloth at home accordingly too.

I agree!

One infection needing antibiotics, so no food that day!

why?

I’m in Brighton. £500 is plenty. If he wants to top it up then it’s relatively easy to get part time jobs here.

I hope he has a great time.

P.s my family gave me nothing to live on

I agree this is a weird thread.
I have not long graduated from uni. I studied in London. My accommodation was no where near 17k so that is baffling to me. I was in until 5pm everyday in uni. Then worked in a call centre 6-9 Monday to Friday. Then when placements came I obviously had to quit working but worked Saturday and Sunday in daytime in restaurant and in the holidays a great deal more. Still managed to go out drinking several times a week and get my uni work done but then I again I much preferred writing essays at 2am than in the daytime.

DD's student loan covered her accommodation. We gave her £400pm to cover food, going out and travel (she was 330+ miles away from home so wasn't cheap travel wise).

First year it was impossible for her to get a job, second year we were into lockdown so she stayed at home to continue with a lockdown job she got here - worked 39 hours pw and did uni work. Third year, she was abroad. Fourth year, she easily got a job working for uni along the lines of her lockdown job here.

This has got to be the most out of touch MN post I've read in a while!

That's so lovely of her brother!