Cost of uni for parents

[TeenLifeMum]

I’ve read multiple threads on here about the cost of uni and parents supplementing about £800 per month. Is this your experience?

my question is really aimed at those who earn too much to qualify for anything above the minimum loan but aren’t crazy rich.

For context, I wonder if I need to plan for remortgaging or getting a loan to support all 3dc through. One will have one cross over year but the other two are twins so will be the same time. I don’t have a spare £2,400 per month available. Hoping for some real life experiences. (I do expect dc to have a pt job but wouldn’t expect lots of hours).

Both mine are studying subjects to lead into careers where there are not apprentiships available.

It depends on what you want to do following the uni course. I have a family member that is very senior in a law firm, they want graduates with good degrees.

It’s not the same at all. The whole experience of living in a new town and being fully responsible for themselves, experiencing different types of people and trying new things is the main thing I wanted my children to experience. Go far away and become an adult, learn things I’ll never know, have adventures, then come back and tell me all about it.

My son finished this year and is stressing to me that his younger sister must go, get out of this shit town and see that things can be different. It really has been amazing for him.

We”re a low income family and he got the full loan. He managed his money incredibly well and made it work, a few holidays, gym membership and all. No payments from us as we had nothing to spare.

I agree with you. My son does not come from an affluent family has worked part time through A’ levels and Uni . I think the experience of living away from home has been as constructive as getting his degree.
I hope employers take this into consideration when interviewing students for graduate roles.

DD's accommodation will cost around £10500 and the maximum loan she can get is around £4000 so if we can't/won't give her money she cant go.
Even getting a job at Uni won't solve the issue much as she would have to earn £6500 per year to pay for her accommodation without any other living expenses.
We will be paying her (catered) accommodation and the rest is up to her

Do you have any idea how few places are available on degree-level or higher apprenticeships? For some of them there's only a handful of places available. The competition for them is far far worse than for almost any university course.

i really hope they don’t as that massively disadvantages those who can’t afford to live away

or those with caring responsibilities etc

A log of degree apprenticeships now are given to those who’ve done the L3 version too

i think for anyone wanting a degree apprenticeship they’d have been better fully going done the apprentice route from school - to build the experience etc

my nephews all got apprenticeships at age 16 and area earning loads and have moved up to L4/5 whilst still very young

they’ve also earnt loads experience - way more than A level equivalents applying

The uni route now is becoming more outdated (useless if i’m honest), unless you are specifically training for a job like medicine, nhs roles etc. Most graduates don’t earn what they should for the debt accrued and many end up teaching (and as teacher i wouldn’t wish this on any of mine)

I think it is inevitable that people who have lived away from home will come across better in the recruitment process
,not fair perhaps ,but then who said life would be fair

We were in a similar position. DD loan amount is just above minimum.
We made it very clear that we could not financially support them but encouraged
DC took a year out and work.
Honestly, DD worked her socks off and managed to save most of the wages... exept for a bit of pocket money.

So loan plus savings and pt work will see her through.

I don't think it's inevitable at all.

For those going to university for "the experience" -it's the experience of being away from your parents, being independent and broadening your horizons. There's absolutely no reason why those who don't go to university can't do these things - it just needs a bit more effort to break out of the rut from being a child.

Whereas living with your parents doesn't (and indeed shouldn't) mean your parents doing everything for you and treating you like you were 8.

My DS, for example, lives with us, but spends all his annual leave travelling on his own. As most of his school friends went to university, he's also gone out and found new ones.

Whereas some university students do nothing other than go to lectures etc and sit in their room (yes, they learn to cook and do their own washing, but frankly I would expect them to be able to do those things before age 18).

No idea why this would be relevant at all. One of mine went to the local university and lived at home for some of that time.
Employers are interested in knowledge and skills not whether you lived at home or not. She got a great job very shortly after graduation.

@OriginalUsername2 I completely get the benefits of moving away from home. DD has gone away to uni and has certainly benefited from the experience. However I know others who have gone to university locally and gained experiences in other ways such as travel and working abroad in the holidays. The experience of being away from home, freshers madness and communal living is not something that everyone thrives in, you just have to see the number of posts from people saying their DC is miserable a few months in. My point is that there should be more consideration given to local universities especially if financial circumstances mean that someone might not go.

@goneaway2 the idea of buying a flat for one/both of our DDs did cross our minds for a brief fleeting moment, but very few people have the luxury of being able to afford this nowadays, and that included us.

Back in the 1980s I spent my 3rd year living with with a friend in a house his parents had bought for him. And then bought my own flat, aged 23, with a £4k deposit. Those days are gone.

Also, you mention "a roughly £100k 2 bedroom flat"......it's clear you don't have a child studying in Brighton, where you couldn't get a dog kennel for £100k.

Ours get 700 a month contributions from me, their dad and their grandparents. I am grateful that dad and grandparents help out, or it would be really tough.

This is simply untrue and most degrees in the past were not about their vocational usefulness