Affording Uni

[bustybetty]

My daughter (year 13) is considering uni. We are a normal family with no parental help (handouts) hubby is on 50K and my work is about 20K, we live in a modest house and have three teens as well. My question is I have just looked at the maintenance loan she would be entitled to and it doesn't even cover the cost of the accommodation - how do people afford this? We don't have spare money and I coupon where I can, we don't have phone contracts or gym memberships. I don't understand how most people afford to send their children to uni. Currently I'm thinking she will have to take a year out to work to be able to afford it.

ideas anyone?

@MissConductUS I get the impression that uni costs are never a surprise to US parents though. Growing up in the UK, I think we all knew about “college funds” from film and TV, before we even had our own kids!

I do think, with the huge cost of uni now, it’s time that there were tax incentivised savings schemes too.

For 4 kids you need to save about £700 a month for 8 years starting from now.

When my SC's went to Uni, they were counted as being resident with DH. DH and his ex agreed this as our combined household income was less than hers so the kids could get a larger loan. DH and I were not married at that point but I had to disclose my earnings. You don't get asked if you are willing to contribute, the system assumes that you will.
I don't know if it has changed since, but if your parents refused to pay towards your costs you had to apply for some kind of ruling on that and prove you were financially emancipated. You would still have to apply for a loan, but you could borrow more money.

@Cocomarine I think you're right in that we aren't used to uni being "free" the way it is in some places, but there is still sticker shock. Uni's here fall into two categories, state and private. State uni's (State University of New York, the University of California system, etc.) have lower costs for state residents and are partially subsidized, but private universities tend to be better quality and more prestigious.

We used what's called a 529 Plan (after the section of the internal revenue code that created them) and it was hugely helpful. You can invest in stock mutual funds when the kids are little, earnings and growth are tax free and we got to deduct most of our contributions from our New York state income taxes. Other family members can contribute directly too, so a good option for GP's who want to help. You should really have something similar in the UK. Here's a bit more about them:

www.savingforcollege.com/

I couldn't afford driving lessons until I was 25 and working - yep it was a pita sometimes not being able to drive but it was perfectly livable especially in a university city with good transport links.
If Durham is unaffordable then your daughter may have to make some tough choices - year off to save, part time working (I worked in a supermarket and an office full time in my holidays), choosing a different uni in a different place - for example there are more accommodation choices in cities like Newcastle & Leeds where students are less of a captive audience. Different course choice - one that gets some funding or is mixed with paid training.
I have been working with a student who took an 'apprentice' route to uni as it was the only way to afford it - which is a new route into my profession and she's done so well and it's definitely made her more employable. We had a practical day a few weeks back and chatted about it in some detail and she felt it was a great route as she had made loads of friends but also felt like she had a foot on the career ladder quite quickly with her colleagues giving her more support.

@Mollymarvelous70 I was at uni from 2013-17 and none of the middle earners I know got grants.

£3k loan was the total amount for most.

[quote CorianderLord]@Mollymarvelous70 I was at uni from 2013-17 and none of the middle earners I know got grants.

£3k loan was the total amount for most.[/quote]
According to the guardian, the average student rent in 2013 was £68.70/week. According to ‘save the student’, in feb 2020 it was £126/week - so almost doubled.

OP don't forget to consider unis in mainland Europe as well (although that might be trickier once out of the EU) - my colleague's son did architecture in The Netherlands where tuition fees were almost non existent and his flight home to see his parents was as cheap and short as eg taking a train home from a UK university.

Last I checked uni fees in Germany were literally £250 per semester...

Oh and lots of degrees are in English nowadays!

We earn about the same op and my son is at uni. His maintenance loan just about covers his accommodation and we give him £70 per week.

I’m in my 40’s. Back when I was university age, I recall having a student finance assessment letter after all the forms were filled in that said along the lines of your have been awarded £x, the expected parental contribution is £y based on the information provided’. The government still has that expectation but it’s not laid out quite so explicitly these days.

Yes, I'm in my 50s and it was very clear that parents were expected to contribute if you didn't get a full grant. I knew one of two people who couldn't go to university because their parents wouldn't pay their contribution and we thought really badly of those parents. I think the posters who claim that "back in the day" students used to pay their own way are deluded. Either that or they weren't students themselves.

I put myself through uni, I took out a student loan and worked about 20 hours a week, and then full time through the summer & Christmas holidays- it can be done. If she chooses a university that she can commute to rather than go into halls of residence it will literally save tens of thousands of pounds- with things becoming financially tighter for people and accommodation becoming more expensive this is becoming more and more common.

@CorianderLord suppose it’s subjective, on ucas it says full grants for those under 25k of 3.8k , and then partial grant up to 42k household income. It depends on your friendship groups and the tier of university as well that influences our owns view of normal.

@HostessTrolley scandalous. Wonder if that’s where unis are investing money in better halls since the tuition increase so they can charge more.

@Mollymarvelous70 - it’s not just the unis, I think those figures are averaged across all students, not just those in halls. My d this year is paying £170/week plus bills and she’s getting a good deal - a clean, fresh, non damp room in a well maintained and well equipped flat in London. Private landlords are often very greedy, charging sky high rents for scandalously poor accomodation, damp, dirty, broken furniture. My uni flat was grim but at least it was cheap!

@HostessTrolley wow I remember mine was £400 in 2010 , yep also bit of a dive . It’s gone crazy. Poor students some have little choice.

Beats me how any parent gets to this point without realising they if they have a decent income, like 70k, they will be expected to contribute.

Back when I was university age, I recall having a student finance assessment letter after all the forms were filled in that said along the lines of your have been awarded £x, the expected parental contribution is £y based on the information provided’.

That's how it works in the US now. You undergo a financial colonoscopy disclosure process and that determines how much need-based aid you get, either in government grants or low interest loans. The uni's use the same numbers to award their own need-based aid.

What's left is called the EFC - the expected family contribution. The EFC must be paid first before any other aid is given by the government or university. Uni money is always the "last dollar in".

But OP if she went somewhere cheaper it would work out as you envisioned, with her loan paying for her accommodation, you for food and her for fun . Lots of uni owned accommodation does run around the 4-5k mark. If she is set on going somewhere that is more expensive than average then yes you will need to work out someway of funding it, whether that is her working part time while studying, or doing a year out and saving, or taking out an additional loan, or you paying the difference.

I do think that the current system which only takes salary into account is ridiculous. It seems mad that someone whose parents earnt say £33k with no siblings might get a full loan and partial grant whereas someone on £35k putting three kids through uni at the same time (or whatever the boundaries are) might only get a partial loan and no grant.

If it helps (again dependent on location) second and third year accommodation can usually be a bit cheaper as there is more choice.

You mention your kids do a lot of high level sport - any sort of bursary or sponsorship they might be eligible for? At the very least that might give them an alternative option for income other than the standard retail/hospitality things that everyone will be fighting over - is it the sort of sport you can get paid for (like being a lifeguard if it's swimming) or they could coach younger kids in?

Why do people earmark money for specific things like accommodation? Why not just subtract the loan your DC gets from the full loan and given that? After all that is the expected parental contribution even if it's not specifically stated nowadays.

Going somewhere cheap will lose the DD money in the long run.
So - why the willingness to spend on sport while being unwilling to spend a smaller amount on university?

I suspect that the idea of paying for accommodation is so that the DC can then budget for things that are less vital - like entertainment. That way the DC can't drink the accommodation funds...

@Legit

I suspect that the idea of paying for accommodation is so that the DC can then budget for things that are less vital - like entertainment. That way the DC can't drink the accommodation funds...

They have to pay for accommodation at the start of term anyway in the first year so they can't drink it. I have always just made up for the loan reduction i.e. given the expected parental contribution.

Not all unis are the same. Durham is a good one and will stand her in good stead. No point in skimping and going to a nearer one. They nearly all charge the same fees - it’s just accommodation that varies. Durham is also a sporty place. Might be worth looking into bursaries for that.

If she's only 13 now can you start saving up some money for her over the next few years, until she can get a part time job somewhere? Or pay her to help you round the house and anything she earns goes into a 'uni fund'

On the run up to uni during 6th form I had 2 jobs and saved hard apart from what I had to pay out for driving lessons and driving test! At uni I then got a job 2 night shifts per week as nights paid more and my parents supplemented this with £40 per week during term time. Most of my friends worked and had credit cards etc we all got through but it wasn’t necessarily easy.

@Henio

If she's only 13 now can you start saving up some money for her over the next few years, until she can get a part time job somewhere? Or pay her to help you round the house and anything she earns goes into a 'uni fund'

She’s in Year 13.

Durham is an excellent university. Going somewhere different to save on three years accommodation costs is short sighted in the extreme. This is her one and only chance.