Can’t afford uni

[Floodedflats]

I’ve got a friend who has 5 children her eldest wants to go to uni next year but because of there income he will only get minimum allowance. He’s considering a job part time but it’s a course that he can’t really work along side due to the hours and extra work it’s a very intense course. She can’t support him as they are stretched financially as a family. He can’t afford to go as the money will leave him short after accommodation costs. The uni course isn’t covered at his local uni otherwise he would stay home. What do people do in these situations.

If the university is in a part of the country where living costs are higher then even with the maximum amount of student loans available, it'll be a struggle and most students will need to find part-time employment while attending Uni. My daughter went to Middlesex Uni up in London and it wasn't cheap to live in London ! Daughter couldn't have managed to complete her degree course without a regular part-time job while she was at Uni.

Could your son not consider getting a job after leaving school but study part-time/at home for a degree with the Open University?

What courses preclude working alongside? Really?
I had a 35h / week lecturing timetable for 4 years, so at uni attending lectures and workshops 35h / week (non-attendance heavily penalised), yet managed to work evenings and weekends at a call centre, while studying and completing coursework.

One can definitely work alongside one's degree. Might not be fun or relaxing but definitely doable.

I took my degree in the last days of the grant. Sounds great but not as good as all that..

My grant covered my halls room and about 20% of my bus ticket. Nothing to cover food, books, bills or the rest of the bus ticket. And there were no loans at all. No bank would lend a student money if they had no income.

So there was a simple choice. Either have wealthy generous parents or get a job.

I worked all of every Easter and summer, plus five nights a week in a pub during term time so that I could eat. It didn't stop me graduating. It meant the rich kids had the advantage but isn't that always the way !

That's fine if your study is all in one place or your allocated lab hours are weekday daytime. In Dd(21)'s house share, 2 are doing nursing, one dentistry, one physiotherapy and she is doing pharmacology. She is the only one who is there all week, the others have various placements... but she still has lab hours at the weekend, and some have them on odd evenings... these vary throughout the year. You'd need a very flexible employer.

The amount of student loan is based on parents ability to support (and this will include the fact they have other children), ie his parents have a good income - it's a shame they've had five children if they have taken into account what they can afford.

Putting that aside, would he be willing to work for a couple of years, get plenty of money behind him and then go in a couple of years. Seems a long time to wait I know, but if he really wants the experience, or the course to take him into his ideal employment, it's worth it. If he can get a job in a store, there's a fair chance they'll take him back in the holidays. Also, unis have their own shops and if you've got experience you may be able to get a job in them. DD did this in year 4, they were very flexible - you just told them what you could do from week to week, if you wanted less hours for a couple of weeks due to workload, that was do-able as well.

The problem is there has been an arms race in private companies supplying "luxury" student accomodation. There needs to be a return to safe but basic accomodation. When I was at university in the late 1990s I was in halls - what was on offer was a basic shared room with two single beds, a sink and two desks. There were shared bathrooms on each floor and a kitchen with a kettle, small fridge and a microwave.

Basic but cheap.

When Mr Monkey's son went to university last year even the most basic halls had ensuite bathrooms and fully equipped kitchens. The concept of sharing a room was regarded with horror.

That said I got lucky - my room mate - a lovely but rather crazy French girl who met a third year student in the first week and pretty much moved in with him in his shared house. To appease her old fashioned parents I was roped in to maintain the fiction she was still sharing with me and in return I pretty much got a large shared room to myself.

The system only takes into account household income and not any outgoings like other children. We can’t afford to help our daughter much during uni. We do what we can and she has a job too.
It will soon become something only rich people can do.

My son with be deferring a year to save up. Its a disgusting system, my son is an adult so why does his parents income mean he struggles to go to uni.

It DOES NOT take into account other children.
If you have other children also at uni yes but not just having other children.

Well I assume it is because most 18 year olds in full time education have little or no personal income. So if support was assessed on student rather than parental income, pretty much everyone would be entitled to full financial support.

It won't be enough as it's based on parental income,so if the OPs child can borrow approx £4k they are expected to make up the rest of the loan to approx 11k. Rents are unbelievably high high,next lifetime I want to come back as a student landlord!

I have friends whose children took a year out and worked so saved before going.

It is a disgrace as a pp said earlier, they are adults, they should be able to borrow the full loan and be responsible for paying it back.

I was at Uni years ago, many part time jobs in pubs etc. ds1 at Uni now. He has a job.

But for any household, trying to find that spare money listed above is massive, almost impossible for most. Funnily enough it's the 'middle families', normal people with ok/good jobs, but who don't have much left over at the end of the month, to whom this hits a lot. I mean seriously who do you know with a spare £500 floating around, easily? Not many.

Sorry, I mean :

Minimum loan £4,600. Max £10k. So parental contribution expected £6,400. Divided by 9 months (sept to July) = £540. Per month. That's an awful lot to expect parents to pay!

And, even then, there are posters on this thread who seem to suggest that parents should go above and beyond this paltry sum.

£5400 not £6400 £450 a month (I'd have thought having one less mouth to feed saves £150 a month so it's a net of £300 pm to find). But as I keep saying the System has ALWAYS expected a parental contribution.

Yes we give DS £500 a month. We were expecting this and planned for it but if you haven’t then it’s a lot of money to find. I think half the problem is that the general messaging is misleading. People think you can just get a student loan. They don’t realise it’s means tested and that you’re only eligible for the full loan if your household income is very low.

And no it doesn’t take other children into account.

But as I keep saying the System has ALWAYS expected a parental contribution.

No, it didn't. 2000 graduate here, so my local authority paid the fees and I got a full grant and a loan of about £1.5K per year. I can't recall how much the grant was, but both sources of' income' were enough to pay for my accommodation, bills and everything else. My parents gave me the odd £20 but it was negligible. I studied in the north east, so the cost of living was really cheap (still is relatively cheap from what I understand) and I didn't get a part-time job, was too lazy to and I didn't need to. Most people in my cohort didn't have jobs.

But even in the good old days of grants these were mean tested based on parental income and parents were expected to make up the difference.

How is this different? (apart from the amount which I fully accept has clearly not kept up with the change sin the cost of accomodation).

@1975wasthebest
but the grant was means tested and if you didn’t get a full grant/any grant your parents were expected to make up the difference.
I was at university in the 1980s and received a full grant, dh did not and his parents supported him. It was quite rare for students to have term time jobs.

DS worked for 1.5 years, not because we couldn’t afford to assist but because he took his A levels in 2020. His GF did go off to uni that year and it was pretty bleak. In two years he saved up 16k. He then ended up doing a Degree apprenticeship, all paid for, no debt and a wage that already close to 30k. What’s the subject this lad wants to take?

Loan amounts have not kept up with inflation, which is the bigger issue imo.
I received a full grant in which was £2100 per year, a cheque for £700 per term. When I was in fully catered halls the termly fee was £350 for 10 weeks leaving me £350 per term to live on which was perfectly doable. I worked in the holidays and saved about £1000 per year and graduated with no loans and no overdraft.

Good to see this issue getting some media attention today. It's on the BBC website too.

University students in England ‘have 50p a week to live on after rent’:

www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/26/university-students-england-50p-a-week-after-rent

www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/26/university-students-england-50p-a-week-after-rent

Sorry, trying to make a clicky link! Not sure why it won't.

Many kids are now living at home now.