How much money did you give your kids at university?

[BerryTwister]

DS reckons he’s had a lot less than his friends. I’m curious to know how much your kids at uni had to live on, after rent was paid.

Yes I realise that @MeetMeOnTheCorner. I’ve made the decision to try not to leave DS with bills.

We did have a lot of conversations about whether to cover tuition or let DS get the loan for tuition and maintenance.

He’s a tennis coach so we hope that halls being opposite the tennis centre will help with bills as management will pay the tennis club membership (possibly cover the gym too 🤞).

The trade off is that halls are further from campus, so a bit cheaper, but needs the Oyster card to get to lectures. Guess we’ll see 😊

Oh crap, I don’t want him to have a high life! 😂 Perhaps I’ve over estimated…

Not at uni yet but when she goes we will pay the tuition fee, accommodation, and give her £250 ish a week to live on I think.

However, this will be dependent on her proving termly that she hasn’t taken out a loan on top (I had a friend who did this which I’ve never forgotten - parents believed she was graduating without debt and she wasn’t).

We already have private school fees and pony livery so essentially we will be swapping one set of costs for another.

There will undoubtedly be a huge range of support, some will have substantially more no matter how much you give. I think working while at uni is important too, unless doing a course such as medicine where the contact time doesn’t really allow it.

We paid her rent (8k/year) and dd took the minimum loan for everything else. I did tend to top up by buying her stuff - shopping, toiletries, clothes. Otherwise she managed very easily on the min loan (also had the tuition loan). I had been saving for over a decade to pay that rent - would never have managed it otherwise.

£200 a month.

@Ventress I think you are very rich and dc will clearly be seen as rich. I’m sure you know that.

Regrettably not @MeetMeOnTheCorner but I am life limited so spending money on DS I otherwise wouldn’t 😊

edited to add that I have decided that DS should have a fantastic university experience as I’m unlikely to see him beyond this time, I just want it to be great!

This is what we are doing too. He also has the minimum loan. He’s managing fine on this.

Good luck in 2026, it's basically impossible for a 1st year student unless you manage to have a job at a chain beforehand and can transfer. Some manage to get a paid job at the uni as a student ambassador or research/library assistant.
The typical student jobs aren't there anymore as they are taken by people who can do it all year round as a second job.

Rent is skyhigh, even at uni halls. DD has seen a huge increase in grocery costs since September and she shops at Lidl and Morrisons.

We pay her rent and decided that it's not worth her being burdened with a loan where the interest is nearly double what we get on our saving accounts. So we now fund her fully. Luckily we managed to repay our mortgage before she started so the funds are available and we still have enough to boost our own pensions.

We just have 1 at university which helps. We pay tuition plus rent (Oxford so about £5k a year) and then she also gets £400 a month from us all year. She also takes out the minimum maintenance loan which gives around another £100 a week or at least she did in the first year, not sure about second year and has jobs which she gets about £10k a year from. I'm not sure how she gets through that much money, I suspect she has secret bank accounts whilst telling gullible DH she has no money and everyone else gets more. She told me once she had £10k in a fixed term ISA she couldn't access. Though with it being Oxford some of them she's with do have a lot more and she does socialise with them.

Oxford don’t like students working in term time. She’s got great holiday work to make £10,000.

In theory yes but she has three term time jobs are paid for by the university 🤔Holiday job here is relatively well paid at around £150 a day plus tips so she'll often get £1k a week.

@Ventress That’s obviously a different scenario but most people don’t have £75,000-£100,000 available for this.

For those paying everything, be careful about DCs future earnings. They might have preferred the money for housing. Not everyone earns £100,000 very quickly.

I read this a lot but neither of my students have struggled to find work.
DC1 has a full time job now in chosen career and still has offers of casual work from old part time jobs because they are struggling to find people who want to work.

I think it is possibly dependent on place. DD is in a city with 2 universities and, although there is plenty of work, there are also lots of students wanting it.

Of her friends that do have jobs, they had previous retail/hospitality experience and are prepared to work through the holidays. She also knows a few people that are missing lectures/seminars etc due to needing to keep jobs.
The job that is fits around your studies and is term time only is much harder to find!

DD can't find work. She's also in a city with two universities and the most recent job she applied for (uni library) had literally hundreds of applicants. She was warned at the uni open day that students struggle to find work during term time.

No they don’t @MeetMeOnTheCorner. I have taken some of my tax free 25%. He has his ISA for housing which his family have paid into for 18 years.

there are people on here with more money than me! Not sure why you are fixing on me rather than them.

DS is working. Has been for two years and been saving his earnings. He’s also set up his new job from September which will pay him £500 a month and pay his tennis club fees. I think he’s done a lot to ensure his comfort while he studies which doesn’t involve me.

I guess maybe it does depend where you live and experience. Both mine had a variety of jobs from 15/16 so had lots of experience by the time they reached university age.

I’d agree with this. Despite having 3 years full time hospitality experience (theatre bar & coffee shop chain) plus a short contract working as a hotel entertainer, Dd can’t find work. Many of her friends who did find work were in jobs where they could transfer from existing jobs and several have to miss lectures as rotas are done before timetables are issued.

£1000 per month plus rent.

We made up money to be equal to what they would have had if they had received a full student loan.

I am giving £150 a week term time only. I think this is probably quite high but the terms are short and I'm not doling out cash in the holidays

First one we paid part of the Uni fees (included his accommodations where he went) and all his books (back when they needed paper books that cost and arm and a leg) Plus helped with groceries he worked part time.
Last one we paid all the accommodations and she managed fine on her loan plus a grant.