To think it used to be free/way cheaper to go to university??

[Univercities]

When I went to university to do my degree it was practically free (republic of Ireland) I had to pay €800 per year registration fee (which I worked/saved for every summer) and that was it!! I was very lucky that my parents paid my accommodation fees(which included bill costs)! Approximately 4K per year. But I worked every weekend and lived off that money!
Then when I did my PGCE in the uk I paid approximately 3k but got it back throughout the year! I had worked all summer and saved 2.5k to live off and then used the 3k to pay rent and other costs (£62 per week)

I know I was lucky! But has it changed dramatically since or were ppl always taking out loans etc?? That was only 10years ago! NC’d!

I finished a BA in June and started a masters in September this year, according to my SFE letter I owe around 70k so far. I have another 2 payments of a postgrad loan to go.
If I do a PGCE that will add around 21k in fees and maintenance loans.
If I do a Phd as well (or instead) that's another 25k.

My partner has also just finished a degree and is doing a PGCE, he owes less as he isn't entitled to as much maintenance loan (I have a daughter) but his bill is still around 45k so far and climbing.

By this point, it's become Monopoly money.

Accommodation in general wasn't as nice, especially rented. You should have seen the dumps I lived in when I first started working

What a weird post.

You were lucky enough to have parents who were able and willing to pay for your accommodation.
There are still students in that position - so no, that hasn't changed.
There are lots of students that pay for that from their loan - just as they would have done for many, many years now. There is no 'news' or 'change' in this principle.
The change - with paying fees - that came in donkeys years ago, just means that the people who now pay towards University running costs, are only the people who benefited from going to university, and not everyone who pays taxes.
I did my degree before fees, and at that point everyone lost around 1/3 of their gross income in income tax (plus NI). Income tax is FAR lower now - you have a HUGE personal allowance whereby no-one pays ANY tax on the first £11K (ish), and then tax is only 20%. Then Graduates who earn a graduate salary pay additional tax to contribute more back to the public purse.
Not really the same as the dramatic "starting work with huge debt"

Why should graduates pay more back into the public purse when there is no longer any benefit to going? Graduate professions no longer pay more than non-graduate jobs, certainly not when you take that extra so-called "tax" off. University is now a huge rip off. That's rather worrying when you consider the number of jobs that require degrees now - and they're necessary jobs too. 50k debt is worth drama. You've obviously normalised it, because you have never had to pay either it or the rest of the modern costs of living.

They don't, I'mGOingto, unless they have benefited from getting the degree, and won themselves a higher paying job.
I have a graduate ds who doesn't pay it, and a dd at university and a dd about to go to universtiy, so it certainly has been in our thoughts for many years.

Another one here who went to uni in 1986...full grant and extra as i worked for 3 years before going so got a bonus amount each year..benefits during the holidays although I always got a job...housing benefit also paid if needed....then I did an MA in Bilbao....all funded inc flat paid for and flights and I had lots of free time to explore spain and teach English also...happy days...!!

"Higher paying". What counts as higher paying given the cost of housing in this country? The rules are that you repay 9% of everything earned above £25,725 (£26,575 from 6 April 2020). Leaving aside the fact that 9% is a hefty amount by itself, median wage in this country is 29k. I'm not sure about the median, but average house prices are 230k. These numbers just don't add up any more. We're not asking repayments to start for "high pay" jobs, but for what is really quite average pay in the face of rising costs. The advice I'm giving my kids, much younger admittedly, is to study something that will enable a move out of the country. That's the ambition of many youngsters I come across too.

Higher education is an industry now.

Some of the more productive colleagues at work are non university educated.

My suggestion is we need to stop thinking everyone needs to attend university away from home.

What I would suggest is genuine apprenticeships (unlike some of the ones offered today), cheaper but not lower quality online degrees and a switch to continuous education / training throughout a career.

I have started using pluralsight and udemy for training, these are a real game changer for me, they have real shown me that you do not have to learn via traditional methods.

Student accommodation was pretty dire in the 90s, it's true. I remember carpets so dirty you couldn't tell what colour they had originally been, one "kitchen" (a cupboard containing a broken fridge and a Baby Belling) shared with forty people, and manky shared bathrooms where I would wash my clothes. I hope you get better than that these days, given the increase in costs!

But the cost of housing isn't part of the calculation.
You pay the same figure in student loan repayments if you are renting in London or Huddersfield, or indeed if you are living rent free with a generous relative.
I never said 'high pay'. I said 'Higher pay' - ie, the time when your pay starts being called 'a salary'. The sort of pay you are never going to earn as a supermarket worker or childcare worker or leisure centre worker or grave digger or a bar man/maid or a waiter or a delivery driver or a call centre operative, or 1001 other jobs you can get without a degree (and many end up doing with a degree, but don't have to repay their student loans whilst doing them - hence it being a tax and not a typical loan)

Late 80s, no fees but only partial grant, parents meant to make up shortfall but didn't, no loans or lines of credit bar student overdraft facility which maxed out quickly. Most people I knew were absolutely skint while at university and worked alongside studying to keep their heads above water, a few dropped out for financial reasons.

I did my degree before fees, and at that point everyone lost around 1/3 of their gross income in income tax (plus NI). Income tax is FAR lower now - you have a HUGE personal allowance whereby no-one pays ANY tax on the first £11K (ish), and then tax is only 20%. Then Graduates who earn a graduate salary pay additional tax to contribute more back to the public purse.

Except the extra tax didn't just pay for the far lower numbers of students in higher education, who tend/ed to be paid more and so contribute back more taxes long term, and or benefitted society in other ways eg. by becoming teachers, doctors etc. But those higher taxes also paid for: schools, hospitals, public infrastructure like roads/railways, social care etc etc.
I would love to pay more taxes if our public services were better, the safety net is far more valuable than a few more pounds in my pocket. And I'm not on a high salary.

Mine was free. Full grant in 1992

I went in 81. There were no fees and I got a grant of £700 per term. That covered my halls room and half my bus pass.

I worked each summer in a toy factory, and 5 evenings a week during term time in a pub in order to buy books and food.

There were no student loans. The bank would ask your income and then laugh you out the door.

So it was completely different. I couldn’t borrow anything so couldn’t get into debt, no parental support at all, had to work & study so no time for partying.

But I graduated with about £20 in the bank I think and no debt.

I went in 1983. No fees to pay. I got almost the full local authority grant. The grant easily covered accommodation and living costs and I topped by working in the holidays.
I graduated debt free and when I started work there were no deductions from my wages to pay back loans.

Accommodation in first year was a catered hall with shared rooms and basic bathrooms.

I lodged with a family who took in students in second year.

Third year was self catered uni flats.

Such a different experience from the one my daughter is having. En suite room in first year halls. My degree cost my parents nothing. We are paying £600 for dd in rent every month. She will graduate with £40000 of debt and we will have paid out £25000 over four years.

Well if the English will insist on voting in political parties that decide to make tuition fees insanely high...
In Scotland however, 5 years of tuition fee free university is pretty great.

People cite stats here that aren't really accurate. The 12 percent of young people at in higher education figure is from the 1960s and since the early 80s (nigh on 40 years) the percentage of 18 year olds going to university had been 20 percent plus. Right now its about 27 percent, so not a drastic change.

Its also worth noting that the "at university" point is misleading, that figure didn't include those at other HE institutions, which in the 60s and 70s could include every thing from teacher training colleges to Polys. The total figure had been on or around 20 percent since the late 70s.

Also the data for the figures that show 49 percent of 18 to 30 year olds will have gone to HE is calculated in an obscure way, and the result is not what the press report it as but actually the probability that a 17 year old will participate in HE by the time they are 30, it doesn't measure numbers going.

I went in the nineties, no fees, full grant as my parents had no money and got x 3 full loans which I paid back by the time I was 30. Worked 4 nights a week during term time and all holidays for cash to live on. Lived in some real dives in Central London but had a great experience. Very thankful for this as I was not born in the UK and got a top quality education very cheaply. Have been saving for my kids uni since they were born!

I agree though about accommodation, its much better although that reflects rising standards outside of university too. Maybe we were more willing to accept crappy accommodation in the 80s cause our homes weren't ensuited and nice like ours are today.

Doesn't stop DDs from treating this place like a hotel when they are home from uni though.

The thing about accommodation is back in the 80s we went to Uni and lived in basic to crappy accommodation, but then graduated and gradually lived in nicer places. Nowadays students live in pretty nice accommodation (ensuite rooms etc.) but then graduate and end up in pretty crappy accommodation - at least around my way the Landlords prefer to rent to students as they can get rid of them. So young workers tend to live in HMOs with far too many people crammed in, or bedsits with shared bathrooms etc.

I agree, although the latest trend for students appears to be these halls owned by independent companies. Don't really get why no one has started offering something similar to young people beyond university.

I do get the reason for these too, why pay £500 a month plus bills for a crap room in a house in Durham but pay for when you aren't there in the summer, when you can pay 750 a month all bills included for a room with an ensuite, cleaners, shared space and a gym.

Loans were a thing when I was a student in the first half of the 90s in Scotland. No fees. So the actual uni thing was cheaper, but we still needed either parental support with accommodation and bills or to work part time too. Most students I knew had part time jobs to pay for nights out, books and so on.

If only they taught you how to use an exclamation mark properly though. Now that would have been value for money.

Yes, but when it was "free" in the UK far fewer people used to go. An unsustainable model if lots of people go to uni (which they should, as a well educated populace is a good thing).

Cost of living etc has increased, so no surprise it's more pricey for rent etc. I had to pay my own uni halls etc rent out of student loan as DPs could afford to cover it.

*couldn't afford it