Looking like both kids are going to Bristol at the same time - how screwed am I?

[CottonOn]

Posting here for traffic.
Two kids, 13 months apart, both want to do aeronautical engineering, one girl starting this autumn, the second the next.

They’ll get the minimum maintenance loan. I’ve got roughly 20k set aside which I naively thought would give them a fairly pleasant 3 years. I’ve only just clocked that actually this isn’t nearly enough.

This is what the calculator is telling me

You could get a £4,767 Maintenance Loan to contribute towards your living costs.
How your Maintenance Loan is calculated:
£10,227 (the maximum Maintenance Loan available)

• £5,460 (the amount you might not be eligible for, based on your answers)

= £4,767 (the amount you could be eligible for, based on your answers)

I’m going to have to stump up £10,920 in the years where they are both there simultaneously just to get to the basic £10,227 and it ooks like accommodation is going to eat up 8k, so even that won’t be enough.

Can anyone tell me how much it’s realistically going to cost to top them up enough to live in Bristol? I’ve been so blithely naive all these years thinking I’d squirrelled enough away. Could kick myself.

Great reply.

I wouldn’t know she’s at uni in Oxford but not oxbridge but I would imaging it would be. She’s trying to be a midwife.

@Louisemumof5

So each child regardless gets 4767

Probably. I often wonder whether it should go back to how it used to be, when fewer people went, but it was free for everyone? I don’t know.
My Dd is Year 12, looking at expensive unis (eg Durham) but I don’t want her to compromise her degree to go somewhere less good because it’s cheaper. We earn similar to the OP and also have not enough savings - I’m expecting it to cost us about £500 a month and she can earn the rest (already has a job & saving hard)
My other child is year 11, hoping a gap year or two is on the cards as both will cripple us.

@Louisemumof5

Firstly Bristol is known to be the most expensive for accommodation. Do they both have to go to Bristol?
Where? Known by whom?
All the research I've done suggests Bristol is about 10th most expensive

@rollonsummer1 Entitlement for 2024/2025 living away from home and outside of London. It’s different if you live in London or stay at home is as follows.

£25,000 or less household income

£10,227 a year maintenance loan

£30,000 household income

£9,497 a year maintenance loan

£35,000 household income

£8,766 a year maintenance loan

£40,000 household income

£8,035 a year maintenance loan

£42,875 household income

£7,614 a year maintenance loan

£45,000 household income

£7,304 a year maintenance loan

£50,000 household income

£6,573 a year maintenance loan

£55,000 household income

£5,842 a year maintenance loan

£58,307 household income

£5,359 a year maintenance loan

£60,000 household income

£5,111 a year maintenance loan

£62,347 + household income (so everyone over this amount)

£4,767 a year maintenance loan

That’s why I stated from my own and others experience - I should have worded it one of the most expensive but I was rushing to get out to work.

@Louisemumof5 that's amazing thank you so much

I think it will be impossible to make up the difference with a job if the course is quite intensive.

To those posting about their or their DCs previous experiences, although it’s well intentioned it’s very misleading. Even five years ago the financial set up was very very different.

those saying well I had to pay for myself and I managed etc - I’m not sure that would be possible now in lots of situations.

lots of parents don’t have up to date information and figures and that can mean we’re all scrambling around remortgaging and putting our DH’s on eBay.

it’s really important imho that we get correct, up to date info out there and not rely on anecdotal evidence which can lull us into a false sense of security.

I agree. And for many parents it will be impossible to contribute.

I do wonder how many parents only figure this out at the last minute the way I have. We could have quite easily got to September none the wiser.

Of course they can study elsewhere. If you can’t afford to support them at Bristol then they will have to choose another university. You don’t owe them their hearts desires.
They can work, take a gap year and choose another university. All perfectly viable options. Also you have no guarantee they will both be accepted into Bristol ??

No wonder the country is stagnating economically and there’s a huge skill deficit when huge numbers of bright kids essentially can’t move down south to attend some of the best unis in London/South east.
I’m aware there are good unis up here too but job opportunities for ambitious young adults are far better in the south in most cases. There was some research done a while back that said that youngsters from poorer backgrounds who attend local unis due to cost issues often never reach their potential because those unis are just not academically rigorous enough. Our local one is almost at the bottom of the league table and a bit of joke.

I think I would advise them to avoid Bristol and London too. Just about everywhere else is cheaper. Bristol also has a shortage of accommodation.

They can move south after they have got their degree.

@wombat15 how so ? It’s not like they are moving back to London and the South where they they can live with mum and dad and save some money. They’ll already have debt and then have to fork out even more for rent. The UK somehow needs to sort out the north south divide. May levelling up will help.

It really depends between colleges. Some Oxbridge colleges are very wealthy and have a lot of bursaries, hardship funds etc. Some not so much.

Tuition fees, i. e. loans were actually introduced by Labour, then tweaked over the years by successive govts, once that door was opened

Apologies - not caught up with the last couple of days . But two points. 1) you don't have to get your degree in Bristol to work in Bristol. 2) our eldest turned down Cambridge maths as engineering was more interesting and non-Oxbridge have longer terms ie more time for other interests. He ran choirs and major larp stuff at uni. Couldn't have done that in a short Oxbridge term. He does occasionally worry as " the whole world" seems to think maths at Cambridge was the ultimate. But he has a good enh=gineering job and very well rounded life - outside work as important as work.

I know labour introduced tuition fees but the Conservatives introduced maintenance loans before that which means they were the ones that opened the door.

Whether they can live with their mum and dad in the south after their degree is dependent on where their parents live and nothing to do with where they went to university.

Here's Bristol living facts as per 2023/24

My son goes to uni in Bristol & it is £8.2k in first year for room only halls but close to uni incl bills. His friend is further out and pays about £8k including food. We pay him £100 a week for living costs. He says it costs £30/week for food. He has asked for £20 extra for gym membership but said "no - get a job".

Its also £70 for train home.

He will be working in holidays for fun spends. I also pay for clothes when he's home. He gets a loan too but this is not means tested xx

They could take a couple of years out to work so that both them and you save. That means they will be a little bit older when going to uni, which I think is a good thing to really be sure of what you are choosing and commuting to study and you can all ensure that they are financially secure throughout their course.

I very much agree with this.

It's like when ppl post about what is xx GCSE or yy A level like and someone posts "well when I did it in 1992..." or even "it used to be a lot of xyz" - not useful really.

having said that I realise I posted about my DD in Leicester which was 2019-2022 haha - but tbf the halls in Leics are still available at about £5k. But yes, she was able to buy her food for about £20 pw which I would say would be a real struggle just five years later - these things do add up.

I think (sorry @CottonOn not much use to you) that it is worth considering cost of hall and other accommodation when looking at unis, esp if parents will not be able to contribute much. I have voiced this view on MN before and been somewhat shouted down but I do think it is a consideration. DS2 was initially offered a £7k SC halls room in his first year (2021) and he would not have been able to go there. Luckily he was able to swap it for something cheaper.