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?

They should get jobs to pay for driving lessons if you can’t afford it, DS had some as birthday and Christmas present and paid for the rest himself, that seems to be one of your big expenses

On Martin Lewis MSE website it tells you how much parents are meant to contribute towards university costs

70k is a huge income, if your living costs are that you really that high then you really need to assess your finances asap.
Big things things percentage of mortgage payments to income, sounds like you could have overstretched yourself for that fancy house. bills and food need to be carefully managed.
There are lot of things to sacrifice unfortunately but your kids also need the support for their music (not cheap but when kids are good at stuff it always costs a bomb to support).
Uni is expensive and needs to be planned years in advance- things to think of, can she study locally (sounds like not an option) or or can you move to a cheaper area (sounds like not a option either)? I did when my kids were in primary school as I knew how much it would cost (kids not at Uni yet but the city has good options). I dread if the kids want to got to Uni in London.
It's not as bad the US where college fees are about he same as a small house.
In summary I don't think there is much to be done apart from really scrimping and saving. Kids will have to work as well.

My eldest and youngest girls went to Uni. The middle one didn't but had a year on Disney Cruise Ships and spent the other years earning at Holiday parks along the South Coast.
All 3 had Saturday jobs of various kinds ( the youngest even walked the donkeys on the beach, which was her toughest job) and they saved up.
My husband was earning less than £30,000 at the time, being a teacher. And I was earning a little on Supply.
The fees at Uni were half of what they are now but we managed to pay up front (foolishly I did not realise that the girls wouldn't have to pay the tuition loans back if they did not earn enough, which they don't).

We had to pay the eldest's accomodation up front in the form of 10 pre dated monthly cheques per year, but the youngest was fortunate enough to do her university years where she had done her 6th form years, so lived at home.

We were definitely not well paid but saved. Our first holiday abroad with the girls wasn't until they were 14, 16 and 18 and that was camping as were all our other holidays in this country, up to that date.

So, as others have said, it is about being careful with money and prioritising.
Also, as an afterthought, my girls have all gone on to buy houses with their husbands ( who earn between £30,000 - £40,000 each), simply because they started saving for deposits when they started earning in those Saturday jobs as teenagers. It can be done. :)

I went to uni just over a decade ago. I got through it by taking out student loans and working. I didn’t expect my parents to pay my accommodation or living expenses, and in all honesty I don’t think they’d have been able to afford it.

She can get a job when shes 15 and save all her money if you cant afford it and i also paid for all of my own driving lessons and had to but my own car, i had two job and was studying at the same time. Or why dont you get a 2nd job if yous cant afford it 😊

Depending on the sport, maybe consider US universities as I know two people who got everything paid for because they were national level in their sport. It did mean they had to train and compete but it worked really well for them.

On an income of £70k, it looks like £14,400 is needed as parental contribution over three years, that is going next year outside London living away from home

I saw you said you think youd be better off as a single parent! Wow. Hows that? You clearly dont have a clue at all what single parents get regarding money. So you think that raising your child/children Yourself be better so you can get uni paid for. Get your head out your arse with your 70grand a year income. Unbelievable

YABU for only thinking about this now you have a child in Y13 and about to apply for uni but you probably aren’t alone. I don’t think many parents realise that they are expected to contribute towards university and make up the difference between the student loan amount and the full loan award (which is still really not enough to live on in some unis). Martin Lewis‘ MoneySavingExpert.com has a good blog on this and a calculator to help work out how much you need to put away. blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2016/09/how-much-are-parents-supposed-to-give-their-children-when-they-go-to-university/?_ga=2.209925333.1337184364.1601573775-555596067.1601573775. You need to start saving now for all 3 of your younger teens and they need to get jobs (if that’s at all possible for teens these days). Good luck.

@bustybetty I totally appreciate your efforts for your children. My parents did the same with me (made sure I had a driving licence as soon as it was legal for me to do so, got me in after school activities etc) they've even made all efforts to send me abroad for uni and was totally worth it for me. What I did to save on rent, I found a student hall (mind you this was 10 years ago and London) where I paid only for term time. So basically not paid any summer, winter and Easter holidays and as soon as my exams ended, I went home which worked out quite cheap. I would have also had the opportunity to work there in exchange of accommodation. My husband on the other hand house shared and worked part time though uni. It wasn't the easiest for him but he managed in the end.
I would also suggest trying to find accomodation via Airbnb and others like such as with COVID, holidays rental isn't quite what it used to be and hopefully this would be a bit more within the loan budget.
Alternatively, your daughter could look at universities that offer online programs - depending what she wants to study, Open University or ones that offer evening classes like Birkbek does in London (or maybe even look at studying abroad where uni is cheap/cheaper like European unis, but then still leaves accommodation costs to be sorted).

I would totally advocate for her applying to uni and depending on where she ends up going to figure out a plan together with her.

This is the big lie that parents and students are told re uni. Students can get 2 types of loan - one covers fees of £9250 and goes straight to the uni from the Student Loan Company, and the second is for living on. And it is means tested and the lowest amount is circa £4K so doesn't covers rents (5-10k depending on location). So parents do have to essentially top up rent money and also give living expenses of approx £60-100 per week for students to have a chance of going. Of course students can work and share that burden but unlikely to be able to work enough min wage hours to cover all the shortfall in a week. Is such a shame that the education is not seen as a public good and funded accordingly. All the cracks in the system are exposed for all to see right now and it's rubbish and full of unfairnesses and contradictions. Even student on very highest amounts can't live on just the loan amount. Having said that I still think a uni education is a brilliant thing to spend time Doing and should be cherished.

If you really feel that you cannot and will not be able to financially support her in any way with her university costs then there is a form she and you can fill in to confirm that she will be entirely financially independent (mobile bills, travel costs, food, EVERYTHING). Her funding will be recalculated on that basis. However, she will still need to get a job as the max funding will probably not be enough to cover all of her outgoings. Obviously if you do go down this route you really do have to back off financially, as any contributions could be problematic in terms of the contract you all entered into with SFE.

@FelicisNox, the OP’s daughter is in school year 13 (last year of sixth form), so is 17 or 18 years old. She would be going to university next academic year.

Updated link for Martin Lewis info www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-parental-contribution-tool/guide/?_ga=2.37966051.1337184364.1601573775-555596067.1601573775
& calculator
www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-parental-contribution-tool/?_ga=2.6384882.1337184364.1601573775-555596067.1601573775

You won’t have the costs for that child that you have now for a start. Lower costs around living and food, or clubs and activities. As others have said look around for student accommodation also many universities do scholarships is talented academically or in sport. Thirdly she’ll have to get a job, the vast majority of students have jobs to support them. Finally don’t have a foreign holiday for a while. Durham is a fantastic university, this would be a fab opportunity for them.

Surely you realised that your children might choose university? I know people who have remortgaged their house to pay for private diploma courses and living costs where student loans aren’t applicable.

@Legit

thevassal - I'd already pointed out that Oxford and Cambridge have cheap accommodation. I was commenting on the fact that OP was being advised to send her DD to a university with low tuition fees. The best universities do not have £5K tuition fees. RTFT?

I have read all your posts. How am I supposed to know what you are referring to or whom you are replying to if you neither name them nor quote them? You haven't used the words tuition anywhere in your posts and the thread is about accomodation costs, not tuition costs so how on earth anyone be expected to know you were randomly referring to tuition when you say "going somewhere cheap will cost her in the long run"?

I'm still not sure who you were apparently replying to who had suggested op's daughter went somewhere with lower tuition fees, because the vast amount of UK universities charge the same tuition fees. It's not like 100s of posters were saying 'send her to U of bognor regis, tuition is £2.50 a term and a bag of chips there.' I saw one, ONE, post suggesting OP maybe thinks about Europe - not sure how you are qualified to evaluate Durham against every single european university without even knowing what course OP's dd wants to do!

Or do you believe just because they don't charge a fortune, (and are "forrin?") ALL european unis are automatically inferior to British ones?

dd gets the minimum loan and we top it up to make it up to the maximum loan level. I calculated how much we would need by the end of her time at uni a few years ago and then added a chunk of 'just in case' calculation on top. We saved into a specific account every month for that. I get that would be much harder with 4 kids. Though of course you aren't paying for their extracurriculars when they go off.

She did look at the cost of accomodation at different universities before applying. Ruled Durham out for exactly that reason. She works through each summer. Not allowed to work in term time. (Cambridge)

I live in Scotland and it’s not considered strange for students to stay at home and go to their local uni, at least half of students do this, maybe more. Why can’t she go to a local uni?

I find it odd that you are only just thinking about this.
The cost of uni is constantly in the news and people know many years before their kids reach 18 that they will reach that age!! So like other big foreseeable expenses, people with reasonable incomes(yours is beyond reasonable) start to save a bit per month for several years. Most don’t pay it all out of the three years salary they earn while the kid is at uni. They might not save enough to cover it all or everything not covered by the loan and kid might have to work a bit too.

So in your position I would have been adapting the spending on extra curricular for the last 5 years to build a pot of money. I would prioritises putting some money in an account for this over spending on driving lessons.

The problem here is that you’re only just thinking about it.....and you have 3 teens. So you haven’t really even allowed enough time to save a bit for the next one because everything will be going into this first child from immediate income. Sorry to ask, but are you the same about retirement....so seemingly unaware it’s coming and not putting aside into pensions now to prepare? Sorry if I sound harsh but it just seems so odd to seem to have had no idea this cost was very likely coming several years ago and on an income that meant you could save something, to have not done so, even if it wasn’t much.

Give the op a break! She's using mumsnet to brain storm and come up with ideas. Also getting a healthy dose of perspective.
Why the snarky and rude comments?

Some large companies (e.g. Nestle) offer graduate training schemes. The student spends some time working for the company and some time at university. Fees are paid and there's a guaranteed job at the end. Worth investigating.

I worked through uni and yes I left with a lot of student loan debt. I also had a scholarship that helped a bit. My folks couldn’t help me out but it’s doable.

thevassal - if you've read all my posts, you'll know that I pointed out way back that Oxbridge accommodation is at the cheaper end.
I probably know rather more about foreign universities than you do, actually, as I've been researching them for one of my own DC. Having researched UK universities for the other one.
If your DC goes to a foreign university, you don't get the benefit of the a student loan. Scotland does have a link with a small number of overseas universities though, and will pay the student loan if the DC attends one of those.

University is wonderful for the right child.
Many humanities courses do not need to take 3 years however. Maybe sciences are different but we had hours and hours and hours of study time in the week. It could easily have been condensed into 2 years.

Also I personally found where I was very naive fellow students who hadn't previously been allowed out! It was big thing for them to drink cider in the student bar, with its brown carpeting and orange lights.

I found it very hard, I'd already been out in London and I found myself out of step with my fellow students.

Even though Martin Lewis says the loan is not a frightening one I disagree. It is frightening to have this massive debt.

@19lottie82, that’s great if you

a) have a university in commutable distance

b) that university offers the course you want to study

c) that course is in a format you are happy with (e.g. assessment styles and module choices)

d) the course has good outcomes for students (the academic quality varies hugely between courses)

e) the university offers the best fit for you, pastorally.

TBH, proximity was low on the priority list for us with all of ours.