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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be a bit worried about paying for DC university costs!

161 replies

rollonthesummer · 17/02/2017 19:19

How do people manage it-how does it all work?!

In my day-I had siblings at university the same time as me-and we qualified for one grant between us! That paid for the accommodation and my parents gave me £125 a month to live on-I never needed a loan.

What happens now? Do they/you apply for one set of money (£9000 a year?) for the tuition fees and a separate loan for living? Is the amount you can borrow based on what your parents earn? If so-what is the current cut off??

Those with children at university now-what are you paying out on a monthly basis???

OP posts:

Spottytop1 · 17/02/2017 22:02

My son lives at home and applied for a loan for fees

cardibach · 17/02/2017 22:05

My daughter is at University. She gets a tuition fee and maintenance loan and a little maintenance grant and I give her £150pcm. Her dad (exH) gives her the £250pcm he used to give me. I pay her car insurance. She has also done some part time work but is in her final year now and the workload is higher and she needs to ensure she gets a 2:1 so is focussing in her studies. I'm broke, not going to lie, but it's only 3 years and it will be over this year!

HidingFromDD · 17/02/2017 22:14

Average seems to be around £400-£450 per month is needed once accommodation is paid. Both my dds have loans which just about pay accommodation. They're then 'topped up' by £450 per month each. Xh and I are divorced but luckily he does pay half. They'll come out with between £40 and £50k worth of debt each, and I'm broke

Original poster

rollonthesummer · 17/02/2017 22:21

They're then 'topped up' by £450 per month each.

That's you topping them up, I presume? Is that just for food, travel and bills??

OP posts:

Littledrummergirl · 17/02/2017 22:34

We are a low income family. Ds1 wants to be a vet. He will owe approx (£9000x5yrs) £45000 in tuition fees plus (£8000x5yrs) £40000 in maintenance loan.

Having looked at Liverpool university he would also qualify for a small bursary of £2000. They have catered halls for the first year for around £4500 (off the top of my head) and a librarian there has assured me that books for the courses are available to borrow in either hard copy or digital download.
This means he will have more disposable money than me (except he will need to repay it).

That's how he plans to fund his degree.

NickyEds · 17/02/2017 22:34

My neice and nephew are both at uni at the moment (first and second year), they both qualified for full loans (eldest had part of this as a grant so non repayable)as dsis has a relatively low income. She gets them an aldi shop when she drops them off at uni. I send them the odd cheque. My neice is doing fine, nephew is skint because, instead of working last summer he dossed about. They were both given £4k each when they turned 18 which had been saved for them. Nephew spent most of it neice didn't!

BackforGood · 17/02/2017 23:27

Average seems to be around £400-£450 per month

Average of whom? I would say that is the 'average' of a select group of people. No-one I know gives their student dcs anything like that much.

semanwen · 17/02/2017 23:35

I was really naive when my 1st stated uni. I thought that they could get a loan for living but didn't realise the loan amount was linked to parental income- so basically the maximum loan didn't cover even 2 terms of accommodation and no living expenses at all.

The loan amounts have since changed I think for new students (now in 3rd year)

I pay about £18k per year per child at university. £9k fees and about £9k living expenses. It isn't fun.

ssd · 17/02/2017 23:37

this thread is scary, I dont know anyone who can afford to give their kids anything like the amounts quoted here

semanwen · 17/02/2017 23:39

Should add that I give my DD about £9k a year to live and that is less than any of her housemates get . 1 is emancipated but ex stepmother gives her money, 1 gets a full loan and parents and grandparents then give her money and the other gets a full loan and then gets top up money.

Original poster

rollonthesummer · 17/02/2017 23:41

I pay about £18k per year per child at university. £9k fees and about £9k living expenses

Are you paying the tuition fees?

OP posts:

semanwen · 17/02/2017 23:46

Are you paying the tuition fees?

Yes. I always said that I would pay the tuition fees (but they were much less originally and I had saved for them). What I didn't expect was to be also paying the living fees.

madein1995 · 17/02/2017 23:46

Because my household income was quite low, I got enough to cover my rent from loans. I got more money in 2nd year, slightly less in 3rd, and a lot less in 1st year. Every year, I paid my accommodation with my loan. In first and third year, my parents gave me £50 a week (it would have been less in 3rd but as I was in self catered halls, not catered as was the case in 1st year, so about half of that went on food) and in 2nd year they didn't give so much hard cash, but when this visited slipped me the odd tenner, and also mam bought toiletries etc cheap and brought them up, and when they visited did a food shop. This wasn't usual - lots of my friends thought me lucky and didn't get that much support. One girl got £60 A MONTH to live off off her parents!
I think rent aside, £60 a week to live off is plenty. Definitely no need for £400 a month. Just give what you can OP, that's all you can do

angeldelightedme · 17/02/2017 23:48

My eldest DS is in his 4th year at Uni and I don't pay a penny.He gets full maintenance amount plus about £3000 per annum bursary for being poor.Over that time he has saved £13,000 but he lives frugally!

hoddtastic · 17/02/2017 23:55

i think crumbs can definitely afford it as on the thread about 'show me your bedroom' she actually lives in a five star hotel in france. Or at least, that was the photo uploaded anyway, they must be absolutely CROESUS RICH (or something)

starving · 17/02/2017 23:56

We are in Scotland so no fees to pay DD has chosen to stay at home as the uni is within travel distance. She would be eligible for a loan but as she is at home and we can afford it she has not applied for one. In first year (and only first year!) I gave her £100 per month to pay for books, etc and in her first long holiday she got a job which kept her for second year. She then was on placement for 5 months which was paid and since then they kept her on part time as classes will allow. I do still pay for her bus pass, contacts and part of phone bill. So staying at home and a part time job has certainly pleased the bank manager, and hopefully she will leave uni with no debt, which is what we wanted for her.

BackforGood · 17/02/2017 23:57

ssd - you have to remember that the MN population does not reflect the whole population.
If you read the education boards you'd think between 1/3 and 1/2 of the population go to private schools, but in reality isn't is something like 6 or 7 % of the population?

If you read the secondary education boards, you'd think anyone who is predicted less than A*AA for their A-levels is clearly wasting everyone's time by applying to a university, but, once again, that doesn't refelct real life at all.

Yes, there are people paying out these huge amounts, but there are a whole lot more who aren't.

gillybeanz · 17/02/2017 23:58

My dd is still young but knows what she wants to do and how much it will cost her. It will likely be 5 years if she decides on PG which she's likely to need.
We will be able to contribute a small amount but have low incomes.
She is lucky to be going into study and a career that attracts huge financial support from many individuals organisations and companies.
She has a list of these and will be promoting herself from year 11.

Original poster

rollonthesummer · 18/02/2017 00:00

|i think crumbs can definitely afford it as on the thread about 'show me your bedroom' she actually lives in a five star hotel in france. Or at least, that was the photo uploaded anyway, they must be absolutely CROESUS RICH (or something) grin wink

Really??

OP posts:

antimatter · 18/02/2017 00:01

My dd first year at uni. Halls are 6K. Food+clothes -》£250 pm (she has diabetes and has to eat well) x8.
She got £3900 loan so I am going to supplement over 4K during her first year. There were also other expenses at the beginning during her freshers.
At the moment I also paid £200 deposit for her room in the shared house for second year at Uni. Her room is going to be 4K for 12 months so considerable saving for me next year.
What you need to keep in mind that you need few hundred pounds late Sept when they go first to Uni.

There will be one tear when I will have 2bof them at Uni at the same time. I hope my dd is going to save enough money from her Industrial placement to help me with all her expenses.

SilentBob · 18/02/2017 00:06

OP, this is a minefield, I know- I was you last year.

The basics I learnt:

£9000 tuition fees were paid straight to the university. Neither I nor my daughter had to do a damn thing about them. (For now.)

Accommodation loans are means-tested and sound scary as hell. My daughter was only allocated the basic loan and therefore the shortfall had to come from somewhere. (Me!)

Accommodation loans are paid into the student's account on a quarterly basis and taken out immediately thereafter- the shortfall also needs to be in the student's bank on the correct day.

Deposits- I nearly forgot! At the university my daughter attended, a £400 deposit had to be paid within a week of their accepting the place offered in halls. This will ostensibly be repaid upon their leaving UNLESS they leave a) before the end of their 1st year or b) with repairs needed to make good their accommodation.

As a broad example-

Upon acceptance to uni halls I paid deposit £400
August I paid top up accommodation £850
January I paid top up accommodation £350...

...my daughter has since left university but my next payment would have been maybe April £300. This money is just for accommodation.

My daughter had a part time job but I did an online shop for her fortnightly (around £40) and put £25 a week into her bank (dad and I no longer together- he put the same in) but there were plenty with less and plenty with more during her time there. It's scary and it's expensive but it's doable! Good luck!

ICantFindAFreeNickName2 · 18/02/2017 00:17

As we are considered high earners my ds gets the minimum loan. In his first year this only covered about 60% of the hall costs ! We paid his accommodation costs about £550 (plus mobile phone) and he used the loan for everything else. Luckily he moved to a shared house in his 2nd year so the amount we pay has reduced to about £370.
Paying the accommodation is what a few of my friends seem to do as well.
I would suggest bearing accommodation costs in mind when looking at uni's as it can vary quite a lot & do remember that if in halls you wont always get the cheap halls that you apply for. DS applied for halls that cost £90 but was allocated one that was about £135.

hoddtastic · 18/02/2017 00:18

yes definitely- she definitely has all that cash and didn't google luxury bedrooms sprinkles massive pinches of salt all over the thread

Wayfarersonbaby · 18/02/2017 00:21

It makes me bloody angry how much young people are paying now for what used to be considered a benefit to society, not a debt.

It's criminal what we have done with education. Don't anyone make excuses about the country not being able to afford it, we most certainly can, it's all about what we prioritise as a society. Young people should not be cash cows racking up debt, but investments for our collective future.

lilaannabeth · 18/02/2017 00:25

I just asked my DD - she finished uni a couple of years ago and her maintenance loan didn't cover accommodation costs by about £1/2k each year so we covered the excess. We also gave an allowance for each month she was at uni (so about 7/8 months of the year after taking out holiday weeks) of £300, which DD used to cover everything else. she worked every holiday pretty much full time to cover holidays and nice stuff she wanted! she said to say she found the £300 more than enough, and it was either the same or more than other friends got (at a top 10 uni surrounded by very middle class people - her words again). she also just pretty disparagingly said that the only people she knew who needed more than that were either spoilt or useless with money/budgeting, and usually both!!

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