Uni costs - student/parent paying

I think it depends which uni you go to. I went to quite a 'MC' uni. None of my friends had jobs. Quite a few didn't have loans at all and were fully funded by their parents. Lots were topped up by parents, so parents paid accommodation and loan was used to live off, or the other way around.

Hasn’t said that. Lots of people seem to be either/or.

If DC don’t earn much and get full maintenance loan, uni is pretty cheap. Not many pay it off completely but all things need weighing up.

That depends on each individual and how much savings they have behind them. It is also up to each parent how much they want to help their kids in uni. You just assumed that the OP was going to use all her inheritance to help fund her kids in uni, she maybe fortunate enough to be able to help them with a deposit for a house as well which would be great.

Yes I’m the same as you OP. I graduated in 2011 and my mum didn’t pay anything at all towards my uni, other than a supermarket voucher at xmas.

However, the only reason I just about made it work was because I took a gap year first to work and save money, I worked during all the holidays, and I worked during a whole year abroad. Otherwise I would have been buggered.

Yep, mine had a deed of covanent to pay me (£150/term I think), plus my grant of £205/year.
DH, on the other hand, had a full grant so it really did cost him nothing to be a student.

Maintenance loan is low for most students and parents are expected to pay. As they did 50 plus years ago when it was also means tested. The myth of lavish finance from “the good old days” when hardly anyone went to uni still persists. Greater uni participation comes with costs. Borne by government, (taxpayers) and parents. After that the grads themselves who, mostly, don’t pay it off. So it’s still a cost to the taxpayer but just not via benefits!

@Lbet Not sure what grad stats and housing stats you have been reading!? Bank of mum and dad really is needed as so few grads have a chance to save money unless living at home and then propose to live in a cheap area. Many report they are nowhere close to saving for a deposit or earning enough for a mortgage. If parents only have enough for fees, don’t. Fund a deposit.

In the 80s we got housing benefit as students, you aren’t entitled to that now and you could claim the dole in the holidays. Things have changed a lot.

Yes I agree with op they definitely need a partime job because the maintenence loans for only just abou cover rent. Then there's all the nights out to fund.

They should easily be able to get hospitality jobs either between now & going or when they get to uni, unless you live somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Restaurants & pubs around here are crying out for staff. At least that will help a little while they are away. It's tough having 2 going at the same time (we had 6 years of it!).

We have two going to Uni this year and it's going to be a big struggle. Ds has not managed to get any work over the summer despite trying, neither has dd although did have a term time job and hoping she can get a few weeks of work in before she leaves for Uni. The loans barely cover accomodation with not a lot left to live off so will be helping them both. We are not high earners either.

Wotnow I think it's wonderful how you can use your inheritance on your children's future you have obviously saved it for that purpose so good on you.

If they come out of uni with no debts and go on to get a good career then they will have the finances to buy their own homes.

They won’t thank you if you cannot give them help to buy a property later because it’s all gone on uni fees. Parents have paid for maintenance for students for decades now. Attending uni never was totally free for the majority @W0tnow

We will pay four our kids, because we can. I lost my parents young-ish and I’ll use inheritance, which they would be thrilled about. I can avoid them coming out of university with a massive debt. I hope they realise how lucky they are. Most of my uni education was free. Fee paying only kicked in in my last year.

Luckily we have a number of decent unis in commutable distance. I'd have liked DD to go away but she's come to the decision herself.

No decent unis near us though. I didn’t want a less good uni for DD. Nor does everywhere offer her subjects. Uni just becomes a continuation of school if Dc stay at home with mates and Dc (or parents) can make a lot of money out of it if they take the maintenance loan and save it.

My DD has decided to stay at home for uni now. Student load for tuition fees and then I can financially support her a lot better as she will be rent free, bills paid, meals paid for etc and she can keep the local job that she has where she can pick her hours to suit. She said a lot of her friends are doing similar now because the cost of living is so high.

@Travelban it might be worth considering using that tuition fee money to pay for a house deposit instead. A caller to Martin Lewis said he had savings and was it worth using them for his tuition fees and not taking a loan. Martin advised him to take the tuition fees loan and the maintenance loan and make a decision once he had finished his degree and started a job. Depending on what job he had and the likely salary progression he could decide to pay the student debt down immediately or instead use that pot of savings as a house deposit. £28k could help out nicely toward a deposit. Just another way to think.

Use a salary calculator to see how much they pay back per month, you will have to use payment plan 2 as a rough idea but honestly it isn't a huge amount compared to pot of cash to get on the housing ladder.

I personally think schools should include a table of income and maintenance costs for university at the time their children choose their options which is year 8 here. It at least gives them a heads up so it doesn't come as a massive shock when their child in year 12.

I agree that the concept of parental contributions has been around for an extremely long time. My mother started uni at the end of the 50s with a grant and a scholarship. Her father deigned to pay her first terms accommodation and refused to pay anything else - she really didn't have enough to survive on (juggled costs of books, transport, new shoes because she walked instead, and food ...). She ended up dropping out (later transferred credits elsewhere and completed a degree). It didn't help that neither of her brothers were university material.

Apparently in her grandmother's generation there were significant numbers of women where the requirement to pay off university loans was part of the reason they never married (though the world wars may have contributed to that a bit too).

When I went to uni 20 years ago there were a few parents who paid for everything. Most parents topped up their children so they ended up with the same as the students who were entitled to the maximum loan/grant.

@CornishGem1975 thata mumsnet for you, thing is coupe on £60000 have to make up same as some on £250000 and its not comparable.
like you say life doesn’t always work out despite best plans, I know someone who couldn’t go to uni as parent refused to help full stop and they could not make Ito n min loan.
my ds has friends whose parents don’t work and they have full loan , bursaries and extra help and so much better off than him.
my da decided to leave now as not for him but we helped him as much as we could and he worked etc and he's grateful, and knows we have always done our best by him and his siblings.

We definitely didn’t want ours having loans,mainly because we didn’t
In Scotland so no tuition fees,we pay £1100 a month to cover rent and spending money

Actually most parents DO make up the difference. My DDs didn’t know anyone who worked.

Unless Dc are likely to be high earning, why not take the loans? The vast majority do. Clearly the well off can help more and max loan Dc get plenty and maybe a bursary too. Middle income parents have ALWAYS made a contribution! DH is 70 and his parents had to. We called it means tested grants and awards back then. It’s fiction to think a parental element is new. It isn’t. So not saving anything will cause issues for DC.

Paying up front is ridiculous if it’s your DCs savings. Or you only have that money spare. Always take the loan for fees. Think if Dc would rather have £27,000 for a house deposit. Or even more if you form out all accommodation and food costs! Can you fund their life after uni? Where will they live when they work? How much will that cost? The grad tax is a drop in the ocean when compared to rental costs! Save the large sums for needs after uni when there’s no loan available.

Dd is going to do a course with fairly low contact time and is desperate to get a job. We saved her tuition fees since birth so she has those paid gor and we will be paying her accommodation but she plans to try and live off her earnings plus some help from us. It's ambitious but let's see how we go. We have already discussed that she may have to get a loan as there are no guarantees we will be able to afford it until the end.

DS1 is aiming for oxbridge on a stem course so we know he won't be able to work or would be unreasonable to expect him to, so we will have to pay or do minimum loan. So I think it does depend on the YP and circumstances too.