The cost of uni

@MrsWimpy im planning to live a very frugal life while dd is at uni!! She already seems to cost me a bomb so im hoping it will even out. It’s bad that they stop child benefit though. Seems so unfair that it’s given to high earners, it would be better to have a lower cap but make it last through ft education. And my child maintenance will stop - although that’s only £20 a week!

I think about this a lot. DC will get the loan - maybe not minimum but not maximum. She'll have to work - she already earns about £250 a month doing admin for a local company. She'll probably have to work in a bar as well.
I'd like to pay her accommodation but that's not really likely.

Not me
I just do what I can for my DC

But life is unfair

Well, yes, bit society doesn't have to be as unequal as hers is.

I think some people enjoy that though. Being able to pay their DC's rent whilst other students are scrimping.

Yes i said that 😀

@Motheranddaughter i agree with you. I’ve planned to take a weekend job in addition to being ft if I really need to. Any further study after uni though she will be fully funding !

I never was a student. Too poor to stay poor for another three years. Needed the money more.

Ok ,I do appreciate life is unfair etc,am from a very poor background
Am not blaming the parents ,more the system
I do think as the system is what we have ,parents should ,ideally ,and as a minimum,make payments up to the maximum loan level
O was skint as a student and didn’t want that for my lot
I went full time to earn enough to support them

So they'll likely get the minimum loan (£4000 odd pa, but it depends on where they are studying). For us, for the 2 still at Uni, this has been enough for expenses APART from accommodation, so my DH and I pay that. One is at Bath and the other at Edinburgh, so we pay £550 odd for Bath and £720 odd for Edinburgh. It's a bit of a nightmare but we've coped just about so far. Both of our children are aware though that they will need to get a job and help if we can't afford it in the future. We're lucky as neither are spenders and neither drink much, so they tend to have money left over from the loan.

Bristol really isn’t the most expensive city! It’s just that many students choose to live in an expensive area. It’s not a requirement to do this. How do UWE students manage?

But life is unfair @Motheranddaughter .

Many dc don't get the support to get them as far as applying for university.

I think the point is, we are all where we are, as parents / families. You have to have conversations with your dc to be clear, where budget dictates that to be the case, that the money they will have coming in from loan and parent top up (where they don't get full loan) is fixed.

The students then have all sorts of choices, and combination of choices as to what they then want to do.
It might include staying home
It might just include avoiding London and Bristol
It might mean self catering over catered.
It might mean shared bathroom over en-suite, or even shared bedroom in some places
It might meaning choosing one course over another because of the cost of accommodation in that city / university town
It might mean working during all holidays
It might mean working term time
It might mean taking a year out to work and save up a lot
It might mean living really frugally.

None of us would say any of those choices are going to be right for every single student, or every family, but they are all things you can think about and decide if they make sense for your individual circumstances.

We live in a city with great Unis

@Motheranddaughter When parents are struggling to meet increased mortgage payments and other costs, squeezing more out for DC is hard if you have not saved up. Many haven’t been able to do this.

Some dc live in towns and cities with great unis. You would not worry if you lived in Bath, Exeter or Nottingham. You would if you lived where we do! I think DC do get a lot from leaving home. Not least making adult decisions without parents hovering. However if you want to live and work in your home city, go to uni there. I notice the grammars here don’t have dc going to the local uni. Look at Sheffield schools and loads stay in Sheffield. Or branch out to Leeds! Different opportunities in different areas.

I think it is very unfair that students have to choose Uni based on costs
Mine all wanted to go away and we supported that
They all had/ are having a ball

Top up in England from min to max loan is £5460 outside London. So £455 a month. Max loan may not be enough in several areas as rent eats up most of loan.
Courses with a lot of contact hours you’d not be able to earn that each month.
As it’s their debt they should all be able to borrow same. If we were in Wales my dc would be able to borrow more than double her current loan.

Dd is now looking at York, which is super expensive and has opened my eyes a bit to potential costs!! The shared bathroom accommodation is cheapest but the cheaper end of the en-suite rooms at 7k are still 2-3k a year cheaper than the high. So I’ve told her she could probably apply for one of the more basic en-suites I was fine with shared it didn’t even occur to me as an issue but she’s a bit different to me. She also has food intolerances and periods from hell so I think it will make a big diff to have a private bathroom if she’s in bigger shared accommodation like York seems to have .

It does depend where though, I think at one point we were looking at Edinburgh and she absolutely would have to have a shared bathroom there I think, but in a smaller shared flat so between less people so that would be fine I think.

I will def lay out the loan amount and work out all the figures with her and she will get less spending money as a result of picking en-suite , I think that’s a good plan. She will have more £ from me than the loan fig though as gluten free food is so ridiculously expensive. And I will pay back her maintenance loan myself as it is needed as it seems unfair she should be in more debt than richer students who get less of the loan and more parental support.

it’s only a few years and I loved uni, I want her to enjoy it. I am a single parent so funds are tight, but I can manage for a few years. She will def have to find work at least on holidays though.

Not a chance she would live at home!

Don’t go to uni in London or Bristol would be my first advice!

Actually for some degrees it’s not a great idea to stop learning. We have a few village shops and no bus to them. Working isn’t that easy either. For a 4 year degree, and ones with maths, dc need to get on with them. It actually is quite hard. Gap years are not a great idea and working at uni isn’t always possible either and not recommended at some.

@TizerorFizz obviously in that case the student works part time before or during the degree or takes a gap year, it’s not that hard and 1000s do it

We don’t all have universities at home. Our local(ish) one isn’t offering subjects that most dc want to study. It’s certainly not suitable for very many 6th formers with high grade A levels. Uni experience is besides the point. Getting the degree you need that’s commensurate with A levels is important. Local might be Oxbridge but local might be not very local at all for us rural folk. Plus it might be near the foot of the league tables. If you choose that over a high ranking uni because leaving home is too expensive then it’s a huge shame.

If the max top up is £4500 this is approx £375 per month. Student can easily work weekends in retail/food to earn this amount.

Or during 6th form to save up, gap year and work. Study somewhere they can live at home.

More and more are staying at home now and going to local universities. My DD has decided to do this which means she doesn't need to worry about rent or food etc. She wasn't particularly bothered about having the "university experience" so it suits her and she can keep her part time job that she has too.

On top of paying her rent shortfall, we give her £500 living expenses. p/m She has a part time job which gives her another £500 p/m

Just out of interest @SlightlyJaded why are you giving her £500pcm when she earns that amount? Surely she doesn't need £1k pcm to live on on?

Year 1 accommodation in halls was only 32 weeks. Years 2 & 3 in private accommodation were 52 week contracts so more expensive.

The only problem is that many (most) universities don't let you decide the price of your accommodation; you put in preferences, and could end up with something vastly more expensive than you had hoped.