If you are fully supporting DC through uni - how much is is it really costing?

How long is a piece of string.
Start by looking at room rentals in the relevant town. then add utilities and phone bill.
I’m not a parent but I’d say £100pw would cover groceries, toiletries/ cleaning and maybe a cheap meal out.

That's why it needs to be considered as a 40 year graduate tax rather than a loan. In fact it would have been better for student finance just to be a graduate tax and have done with, rather than the current situation where it will be the most wealthy and most already priviliged that pay less.

At any rate i've suggested to DD that she just considers it as an extra tax for 40 years, and if you go with this approach, you should absolutely take as much as you can. This approach works less well if you are sitting in the "higher than middle" salary range where it might mean you take 35 rather than 30 years to pay it off (for example).

I don’t think it is a good idea unless it is a highly intensive course otherwise you’re not teaching them the value of money.
course fees, yes, help with rent if you live far from the university, living expenses covered with a part time job.

Unis like Warwick don't have much housing near by - have to live in Coventry (15min drive away, 30min bus) or Leamington spa. Only on campus accommodation was for first year's with a tiny amount for those who couldn't get a flat share.

We were in the top 1% of earners, and we were the least well off among our friends.

They need to add VAT on Uni fees. It’s only fair those with the broadest shoulders pay more.

But if my kids go to school in London and live an hour away from uni in a cheap flat (ha!) they’re still 4 hours closer than they’d be if they lived with me? You can have a commute ‘and’ be closer than your own home.

Or a mid-earner who will consistently pay, taking almost the whole term
to clear the total which will have doubled. Studies from the outset flagged this.

I think projections are that just over 50% of people will pay off Plan 5 (the current offering) loans. So a good number will be paying for 40 years. You can of course take a view on whether your DC is likely to pay it off or not. If you are a male student aiming for a job in the city i suspect your odds are higher than if you are a female disabled student (for example).

Why did you reply to my post asking where I got £27k from then? 🙄

I suspect that having the pot of cash in front of them, years down the line, paying off the student loan may look like the worse option!

What really galvanised us to consider paying it all upfront was that interest is based on RPI (Plan 5) and when we got the introductory talk at dc’s sixth form (maybe Jan of 2023?) RPI was 13.5 per cent…. There is a clause in the student loan agreement, that allows them to vary certain of the terms - i think this has meant that they have chosen to cap the interest at (??) maybe 6 of 7 per cent when RPI has been really high, but I suppose they could choose not to cap the interest (as the terms vary). (I had a very early version of a student loan in the very early 90s, and the interest rates at one stage were 10 per cent… ). Some might say that the interest rate doesn’t matter, as you only ever pay a proportion of your income (above a threshold), but the interest rate affects how long you will have to pay the loan for, if you are likely to pay it off at some point (as many people are).

My contribution was highly relevant, no need to be patronising. A poster was terrified they couldn't afford university because their salary was less than the fully funded cost. My reply was in response to that. Worry about your own comprehension, not mine.

@QuandryQuaint Depending on age the best option if you want to pay fees and maintenance in full would be to put the £2+k excess monthly income in his pension to get the tax relief and then use the tax free lump sum when available to pay off the outstanding loan(s). Even a relatively cautious investment growth over 5 years would hopefully be greater than added interest.

I despair of the comprehension skills on MN sometimes. Read it again.

£27k is a fairly standard total cost per year. How much people contribute is another matter.

More specifically, OP asked how much the total is from those who are fully funding, so she can decide if she wants to do the same.

My 31 yr old son was delighted to pay off his student loan recently . Probably only possible because he studied in Scotland where fees were low and he works in banking so receives high bonuses.
He certainly hasn't lived a frugal life since uni and is married with a baby so it is feasible if you're going into a highly paid career.
The projections laid out here are terrifying but realistic and I really despair of our systems.

My nephew started work and has started paying lots each month and the debt is still going up. How very strange to think everyone’s loan is written off.

I think it was more that the cost of being at uni for a year was 27k/year (I think that is probably quite high estimate, I think DDs expenses would be 22-23k, and she's in a fairly expensive city) rather than its normal for that to be entirely funded by parents. But I think having some parental funding is normal/expected because in many areas the loan wont cover everything. But the title of thread will attract the people that are paying those amounts.

We looked at some unis in city's where the halls of residence were a bus ride away, presumably because it was prohibitively expensive to have multiple blocks of student accomodation in the middle of a city. Some London student accomodation is eye wateringly expensive- even when its a significant commute away from the uni itself. LSE, King's and Imperial all have campuses in central London - it stands to reason there is unlikely to be much student accomodation in Kensington or the strand. Although tbf i work in central London and there is some student accomodation round the corner. Out of curiosity I looked it up and its £500+/week!!!

I kind of agree but I also don’t believe that the taxpayer should pay for existing numbers of students to go to university because a lot of YP don’t need a degree for the jobs they’ll do ( there’s cheaper ways to train people and people who don’t go to uni shouldn’t be asked to pay taxes for other people to just enjoy studying for 3 years). To get rid of the current financing system and make it funded from general taxation we need to reduce numbers at Uni ( and so the number of unis) but how do you do that? What’s the criteria?

The whole system is a shit show and will lock poorer students out.
The students loans system is a governemnt endorsed dick Turpin scheme now thankfully exposed.
And even with fees uni are still struggling

Maybe I’m not understanding your point or possibly it’s differing interpretations of “commute” but it’s totally feasible that a student studying in an expensive city could live 40 mins + from their uni to have a student flat that’s affordable but also not be able to live at home- if your parents live in Bolton and you’re studying at LSE, it’s likely that an affordable student flat in London could be a 40 minute commute by tube and cost £50 a week. Similarly many 2nd year Warwick students live quite far from the campus and some St Andrews students live in Dundee . This year Southampton have some of their first years in halls in Winchester so that’s also something of a trek. In any event, if it’s not feasible for the student to live at home, and rent plus commuting is less than living close to their Uni, then surely that’s not an issue from a parents contribution POV. I’m sure most of them would prefer to live nearer the Uni but can’t find or afford a private rent in that area.

Accommodation cost is the one that varies wildly between cities. Sheffield is pretty good, DD pays £120/week in a shared house. Some areas can be double this.

We're in the top 5% of earners and give DD1 £5000 a year. I don't know where you get £27,000 from.

We give DD1 about £5,000 a year and she gets the minimum loan. On top of this she has a job at university and at home.

No, many people in the UK cannot afford to pay 27k per year per child, just as many cannot afford private school fees. As I said, many people earn under 30k, it is extreme privilege to be able to spend that sort of money on covering your child's tuition and maintenance.
If i had a child I'd be able to support a little but they'd either need to take a gap year and work, live at home, choose cheaper halls and work in holidays/weekends or do a degree apprenticeship.

If you don't want to live with your parents to party and have lots of sex then move out properly and get a job to pay your rent like everyone else. The whole point of a "student flat" is to live by the university so you can study. Especially if your parents are paying your rent!