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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how do you/your child pay for uni?

179 replies

wishparentingwaseasy · 27/04/2015 15:57

My eldest is off to a central London university in the autumn and I have just completed the student loan calculator.

We (as its household income not students income or lack of) are entitled to £9,000 for fees and £6,500 for living expenses. The cheapest halls is £5,000. I daren't look how much for non halls accommodation. Leaving £1,500 for everything else including food, books etc. £37.50 based on 40 weeks.

AIBU to wonder if that is doable?

It is certainly unlikely that they will be travelling home. Sad

OP posts:
halfacup · 27/04/2015 22:25

My son went to uni in London. The 1st year in halls was just about affordable via student loan and our contribution ( making him up to the full loan amount) as it was only 40 weeks. Once he moved into a flat we had to pay loads extra despite him working. Flats are hard to find, you have to pay for 52 weeks a year and agency fees. Rent was about £600 a month. In reality it is not possible to live in London without substantial parental support and many students drop out as they canâ??t afford it.

Arrowminta · 27/04/2015 22:28

Tuition fees and maintenance loans are repayable, depending on if they manage to get a decent enough job at the end of it. Grants aren't.

So a high earner will pay it most or all of it back whilst someone who doesn't earn much won't pay a penny.

parsnipbob · 27/04/2015 22:30

Pug no my sister is not very proactive about finding pt work either, had to pin her down and make her apply for stuff :)

Half 600 a month is about right for a London house share, but I have seen some for 400-450

QOD · 27/04/2015 22:30

Dd is yr 11 and I've said we'll pay her weekly food shop. But she wants to go to London .... ugh. It's commutable in theory but I think normal commute is £6000 so no idea what for student.
I've told her she's got to work summer hols yr 12 and 13 and save!

parsnipbob · 27/04/2015 22:30

QOD good for you, great attitude!

whois · 27/04/2015 22:30

The key is to really really work your socks off in the holidays (mainly summer as Christmas and Easter are needed for revision) if at all possible because it can be hard working during term time on many degrees.

Also possible to take a gap year with the express intention of working working working and saving.

I worked on my gap year, quite in the summer and went on two holidays and had a big buffer to start uni with. Mum and dad didn't make me pay any rent or anything during my gap year which is obviously an 'easy' way to help subsidise.

Really out me off going on nights out on my gap year when a cocktail would cost £8 and that took nearly 2 hours to earn! Suddenly became very keen to do cheap things.

morethanpotatoprints · 27/04/2015 22:36

So whats the problem with the maintenance loan if it is paid back?
Everyone has the same fees whether their parents earn under 25k or over 45k?
Can you not get the grant or bursaries over 45k then?

My ds didn't have the grant because you had to have the maintenance loan to get it, or something like that. We were definitely under 25k Grin

Bonsoir · 27/04/2015 22:39

DSS2 firmed a London university yesterday (his other offers were in provincial universities) and we took a look at accommodation. I think his rent in halls is going to be 2x what his brother's rent at Bristol costs and the accommodation in London looks fairly grim. Fortunately DSS2 is pretty robust.

We have planned/saved ahead for the DC's studies but were in a particularly fortunate set of circumstances that enabled us to do so advantageously.

halfacup · 27/04/2015 22:40

DS paying £600 /month in Camden so walks to uni ( now doing a funded PhD) and has no travel costs. Cheaper accomodation is further out of London but you then need to factor in the cost of a travelcard.

DrCoconut · 27/04/2015 22:42

Agree with imperial re prescriptions.

HelenF350 · 27/04/2015 22:42

I went to uni when I was 26. Worked full time hours during term time and 70-80 hours during holidays. Still got a 2-1. I had a mortgage to pay. If you want it you just do it.

parsnipbob · 27/04/2015 22:44

Am doing an MA at the moment and working full time to pay for it. Definitely doable.

whois · 27/04/2015 22:48

Am doing an MA at the moment and working full time to pay for it. Definitely doable.

Yeah but not if you're on a contact-heavy course like engineering or languages where they will have 25+hours of contact, plus independent study to do!

Working full time hours while at uni during term time is never recommended.

halfacup · 27/04/2015 22:57

Also many courses now work on cycles such as 1solid week of lectures/labs then 2 quieter weeks, making working set hours difficult.

parsnipbob · 27/04/2015 23:02

Whois I wasn't saying it was, just saying it can be done if really necessary.

Had friends doing engineering and other contact hours heavy courses who worked 4-12 hours a week out of necessity. Not saying it's ideal, but it's not right to say its impossible because it isn't.

In any case I'm talking about my MA, not my undergrad.

avocadotoast · 27/04/2015 23:03

My first year at uni was 9 years ago (jeez I feel old now), so just before the £9k fees came in.

I took full loan to cover fees, and the full maintenance loan/grant to cover living costs. I only managed to work over Christmas in first year, but for my second and third years I worked part time all the way through. My parents weren't in a position to help with my living costs. I graduated with a £1,000 overdraft, which compared to some of my friends wasn't too bad really.

I wasn't in London though; I was in a cheap northern city, which I imagine made a very big difference.

HelenF350 · 27/04/2015 23:03

I did a BSc degree which meant 26 contact hours per week and worked full time hours. I did a couple of days office work and a lot of evening hours delivery driving. It is perfectly possible if you want it enough!

HelenF350 · 27/04/2015 23:39

Just to add my jobs were both 'exploitative' zero hours contracts. Personally I found the flexibility perfect for fitting in with Uni. I know they don't suit everyone but they do have their place.

Gillian1980 · 27/04/2015 23:39

I worked part time during term time and full time in the holidays, maxed out an overdraft and credit card and lived on as little as possible.

That was through 2 degrees where I had to do unpaid full time work placements as well as lectures and self study.

Most of my course mates were in the same boat and we all struggled to cope but got through it somehow.

BackforGood · 28/04/2015 01:14

I agree Helen. My ds is at University now, and his 'zero contract hours' job fits perfectly for flexibility - I hate the way some people maintain they are all bad. They suit a lot of people.

I also don't get this "not having time to work" thing. When I did my degree, it was 9 - 4 for 5 days a week, and I always worked throughout the degree.
When ds was in 6th form he worked 10 hours a week, plus did a LOT with Explorer Scouts, plus socialised, plus got his A-levels. I'm not sure that there are many courses (perhaps medicine aside) that really mean you can't ever work, should you need to.

Talismania · 28/04/2015 01:33

agree £37.50 is plenty for groceries, my budget was £25 a week for food because I never went out (don't drink so student socialising was a bit beyond me). sister is even more frugal, sets herself £15 for food.

How? Genuinely curious. I know you can buy a lot of snack type food and canned stuff for that, but can you eat properly on that budget?

CallMeExhausted · 28/04/2015 02:14

We live in Canada, where post-secondary education cost has been skyrocketing.

For DS, we started an education savings account when he was born. It will cover his tuition and books, but he will have to live at home. When his grandfather passed, money was put in trust for annual contributions to his education fund, and the remainder will go to him upon graduation.

I was crippled by education debt, and swore I would not do the same to him. His sister will not go to uni, so money for her has been going into a "disability savings fund" that converts to something called a Hensen Trust when she is of age to access it.

Primaryteach87 · 28/04/2015 03:26

No. Even working part time everyone needed 2k plus extra from mum and dad. Those who only worked (no money from parents) typically worked a lot of hours and either dropped out or their degree result really suffered. If you don't live in halls it's hard to make friends. Remember everything costs more in central London even basic stuff. Budget to help out. I had 6k over three years (2k/annum) and was in the bottom 25%. This was 10 years ago. I'm not from a wealthy or even Middle class background.

namechange0dq8 · 28/04/2015 07:17

I do think it is a bit redic for parents of 18 year olds to suddenly realise they might need to help out with uni fees. What did you think was going to happen?

It's not the fees (there are loans which are not means tested, so no-one who is a UK resident EU citizen needs to pay a penny at the point of use for a first degree), it's the living costs.

And there, I can only shake my head in wonderment at people's naivety. Grants have been means tested since forever. My parents were teachers, one part time, and I got a minimum grant of £410 in 1983, £205 in 1984 and £0 in 1985. That was the grant you got irrespective of parental income. At the time, a full grant for those whose parents were substantially worse off was about £1850. The current situation is actually more generous at the point of use, because everyone is entitled to a maintenance loan that is substantially more than zero.

Unless you are extremely hard up, parents have been expected to find some or all of their child's living costs since the early 1970s, and parents who are in reasonably secure middle-class jobs were expected to find every penny of their child's living costs from 1985 until the arrival of maintenance loans.

So people who claim they didn't realise that they'd be expected to find some or all of the costs must have had their head under a rock.

parsnipbob · 28/04/2015 07:21

Tails yes I ate very healthily :) didn't eat much meat so that slashed food bills. Ate a lot of lentils, rice, pasta with veggies. Frozen veggies and frozen fruit cheaper than fresh. Big bags of oats for porridge lasted for wakes. Baked potatoes. Etc :)