Cost of kids at university

For households where help will be difficult, a gap year working is a good idea, one of my DD’s did this and even paid her fees for year one out of it reducing her loan. Often if it’s hospitality they can pick up work when back in the holidays or in their university city. My friends grandson started working in the local pub, they have promised him shifts at Christmas when he goes to university in September, fortunately universities are off at their busiest times!

Obviously they will need to get jobs as teenagers and save up, plus work at university and in the holiday.

We topped up to the maximum loan which currently will be circa £500 a month though be aware in halls fees are termly so you will need to help more upfront. Some universities are more costly than others and some dc choose more expensive housing. One of my DD’s had sponsorship so she cost me far less thankfully

DD gets £250 a month from a combination of us and grandparents. She’s on the minimum loan, in the cheapest halls and I top that up by £300 a year. Her loan pays for her accommodation. I also pay her phone and tickets when she comes home. After being made redundant, ironically from a university, and having four other kids who will be at university at the same time we can’t afford anything else. She’s got three different PT jobs and puts half of her wages into savings.

Loan largely covers tuition & living costs. Expect to cover rent yourself so around ~£9000 per year - if halls it’s more exp but 9 months, if shared accommodation it’s cheaper but 12 months - so works out around the same.

The number of students wanting jobs has gone up and the number of jobs available has gone down. "Feeling obliged" to get a job does not guarantee you will get one. Most of my daughter's peers have applied to dozens of likely vacancies unsuccessfully.

We have fully funded rather than DS taking loans. It is about 20k/year including fees, accommodation and monthly allowance. He has a part time job in our village pub, so holidays only, but he uses that for any extras.

It's really sodding expensive. I gave up trying to work it out but we were pretty skint through the uni years. 1st year halls, years 2&3 student rentals, living expenses (food, basic social/leisure, clothing etc), tuition fees, books, blah blah bloody blah. We were deeply relieved when it was over.

Our DS is at uni in London. The accommodation is the expensive bit. It will not be as bad for second year but still a lot more than most other cities. There's no getting round the need for relatively affluent parents to help with this when it's London.

He's budgeted well for food and socialising entertainment. A bit of part time cafe work helps a lot. As far as entertainment is concerned. He doesn't have tv licence access but doesn't need this as we bought a Netflix sub and a BFI subscription which includes BFI player. These were birthday/christmas gifts. Going to pubs etc. he budgets for.

A well managed gap year can help with funding. Some work and a bit of travel. Some travel options can be both. He will join us for our surfing and chilling in Cornwall. I'm not charging for the accommodation and I did not take 'board' while he was on gap year. The understanding would have been he saved some money from working but he's sensible so I didn't have to even say.

What jobs? The local reddit is full of locals with full flexibility and commitment to the city who can’t get retail or bar jobs. A barista position was advertised recently wanting 4 years experience for a NMW job. It’s an employer’s market. Students with fixed lectures and the risk of leaving in the summer are not top of anyone’s list.

not even counting the 50-60 hours a week expected for her course.

We pay the accommodation, phone and travel costs = £1000 p month.
They work in the holidays to save money for their food and social budget throughout the year.
Tuition fees are a loan.

We pay about 5.5k a year towards rent. DD gets minimum loan.

Mine are on minimum maintenance loans and I give them £700 per month so that's similar to the £8k each others have estimated. But there are savings at home that offset that a bit. Food is the obvious one but we also have noticeably lower heating and water bills during term time when it's just me and DH at home.

Top up from minimum to maximum loan (about £500 per month per child), plus pay phone contracts, prescriptions, eyecare and dentistry and sports costs and equipment and car costs for them. This basically covers all their essential costs, plus a basic social life. They work in the holidays etc for money for holidays, fripperies and fun stuff.

Honestly if you live in London, go to uni in London

My DD is off to uni in September having taken a gap year. She has saved hard anyway from an early age and plans to start Uni with 9/10k in the bank by the time she starts. She's chosen to do camp America too over the summer as the travel part of her year out - basically being paid to be there as a holiday.
I'm currently being made redundant and looking at how to reinvest my payout so I can help her further.

I wouldn't recommend being made redundant but do 100% recommend a gap year as I do think they gain a lot.

You'd need to top up DC to the maximum loan amount so they are not disadvantaged. Then whatever else you can afford to give them towards food each month. The maximum loan normally only pays for halls, joining a few societies and toiletries. My Foster son pays ££240 per week on halls which includes gym membership. That's £10,080 per annum just for accommodation. The loan is only £10,830 as studying outside London. No one can live for almost a year on £750. It's madness. There are not always part time jobs available either. It's got worse for part time work since RR increased employers NI for part time workers. We buy all Foster sons food and give him £120 per month for food. He gets PIP too, without that we'd have to give him more to live on.

We started saving for the DC when they were born because I don't like the way student loans have gone/the repayment terms.

So far we've saved the tuition fees and over the next 10 years we will save the accomodation & basic living money. They will be expected to get summer jobs to pay for anything like holidays/treats.

I’m in Scotland and it’s far more Common for kids to stay at home and go to a local university. Sorry, appreciate this isn’t a helpful comment!

We pay the rent it’s £8400 yr2 (12 months contract) yr1 uni halls she opted for cheapest room none en-suite and it was cheaper under £7000. Plus phone, train home very occasionally and shop at beginning of semesters. She lives on min loan.

It helps that ds cycles everywhere so no car costs either. His uni doesn't provide parking for students so a car would be pointless. Every halls room has a bike locker instead. Very green 😊

key Factor is the accommodation costs. Dd is at Bath which is £££, whereas Ds attended Warwick which was £.
dd works in the summer vacation as her course has labs and a lot of contact hours so a part time job would not be possible. She also has a chronic illness and would not be able to manage uni and a job.

Adding all three of mine are at expensive universities and so I think we’re on the hook for about £18k each.

Obviously if they’d taken the maintenance loan then we’d have provided less (I think the max they could have got was around £5k)

We give our son 6k a year, which is usually split monthly. This mainly covers his rent, although he’s final year and he had one year that 6k didn’t cover his rent so he had to work to top it up.
He then lives on his minimum loan, so this covers food/socials/fuel/train fare etc

He also has a job during the hols, so tops up savings.

I do get the occasional bag of shopping for him to take back after being here for the weekend/holidays. First couple of years I took him back to uni via the supermarket so he started with a full shop. He now drives to Uni so sorts himself out!