AIBU to say that a student loan can be enough to survive on at uni without having to get a job?

[Mickeyx0x0]

My son is in second year of uni. Due to a drop in our income due to pandemic, he has received full student loan last year and this year. If he had not got full loan, we would otherwise have made it up to the same amount with our parental contribution.

He has found the amount he has been awarded more than enough to live on, without needing to get a part time job. Perhaps it is the area his uni is in (Loughborough where costs are cheaper than some places). Maybe my son is more frugal than the average student (quite possibly; not sure about this one). I am just curious as to whether other people find that their student DC is can manage on their student loan without needing to work as well?

I think it depends on a lot of things tbh.

DD will start uni next September, all going to plan, and her preference is to be London based.

She will qualify for full loan, which as far as I can work out currently, should cover accommodation, travel and food, providing she sticks to a budget.

But of course there is more to life than that. She's been working since last May and saves £40 a month, plus a chunk of any birthday/Christmas money that comes her way. As it stands her job is partially remote and her boss has already said that if she's still there when the time comes she wants DD to continue her job on a fully remote basis, but otherwise she will need to get a job and is on board with that.

I hope her dad will chip in to help her out as he won't be paying maintenance anymore, but won't be holding my breath.

If push comes to shove I'll have to downsize to help her out financially, but if she remains as committed to her studies and future career as she is currently, I'm happy to do that.

Not all parents can pay the top up I assume. We are saving hard but will have at least 3 children at university at the same time if they all choose to go.

My ds is at uni. He receives £4400 maintenance loan each year.
His rent is £6,000

So no it is not enough for him to live on. He has a part time job a I also help him financially.

The system would be much fairer if all students could apply for what they needed up to the maximum, rather than parents having to pick up the slack

Not sure I agree with this.

Admittedly I am from the generation where tuition fees were things you didn't need to care about and there were maintenance grants, not loans. However it was still means tested. If your parents income was over a certain amount then you only got a token and your parents were meant to make up the rest.

Having said that I knew hardly anyone who worked at university.

DD worked in the holidays but we made sure she didn't need to during term time. But she did have a budget that she had to stick to for the money to last

My DD gets the bare minimum. She can’t work in term time as she’s doing midwifery, so is on placement as well as in uni (on bloody zoom but that’s another story!)
She works every holiday to help her get by- saves it up ready for the next term. I still have to help out but she manages her money well and is very resourceful.

@Neverforgetwhothisisfor

Cambridge Uni students aren’t allowed to work during term time, so they have to find a way to manage on their student loans.

Is that even legal?

Loughborough, well Leicestershire in general is cheap, so his rent is low now and he’ll find student rentals in 2nd/3rd year to be fairly cheap.

I had the full loan/grant as it was when I went to university in 2008, my rent was £138 per week and term time only, our housing was allocated depending on which college we secured, so it wasn’t a simple case of choosing the cheapest housing. Private rentals were very very expensive and in short supply so many people (me included) stayed in halls throughout university.

I wasn’t meant to work at university as it isn’t normally allowed, I had to gain permission to carry on playing rugby, this was then reviewed each semester. If I been told to stop I wouldn’t have had my income from rugby to pay costs beyond my rent.

In NI they don’t pay £9k fees though, so swings and roundabouts.

I’d second what other posters have said about holiday and/or part time jobs. Recruiters look much more favourably on people who have gathered experience beyond their studies. This doesn’t necessarily need to be paid work; it can be volunteering or leadership positions in Uni sports clubs or caring responsibilities, or just something that demonstrates they can take responsibility and have a bit of oomph about them. Some students are even already in managerial roles by the time they leave university (E.g. shift manager in a shop/bar) and they get snapped up. For many roles these days a degree is just the base qualification - it gets you over the barrier to entry - but it won’t make you the favoured candidate unless you have other strings to your bow.

@Mickeyx0x0

My son's self catering hall costs £4278 for this academic year (about £109 per week). His full student loan is £9706, so he seems to be fine to live on the amount he is getting.

And he's paid his fees out of this too?

I think it very much depends on where it is and what food shops are available etc.

In my experience, not a chance. I had 3 jobs at uni.

Both my siblings who went to uni managed fine without jobs or parental support - Warwick & Aberystwyth

DD is currently looking at going to Bath uni later this year. Although some accommodation is very expensive (about £8000), there is cheaper accommodation of £74 per week (sharing a bedroom) . It is her first experience of making sensible life decisions to realise that she won't be able to choose the more expensive accommodation (with en-suite showers and double beds) because it won't leave her enough to live on.

@KiloWhat

Mickeyx0x0
My son's self catering hall costs £4278 for this academic year (about £109 per week). His full student loan is £9706, so he seems to be fine to live on the amount he is getting.

And he's paid his fees out of this too?

I think it very much depends on where it is and what food shops are available

No he didn't have to pay tuition fees out of maintenance loan. All students get a 100% tuition fees loan which Student Finance England pay directly to the uni on the student's behalf.

@Flutterflybutterby

In my experience, not a chance. I had 3 jobs at uni.

Was this possibly as result of parents being unable to give you the assessed parental contribution or high accommodation costs maybe?

It's totally dependent on which university, and its ridiculous that the only concession made is a London weighting. In a lot of places where the university is high prestige and there's limited availability of accommodation, students will have no choice but to spend the majority of their loan on rent and will have very little left over for food and other expenses without a supplementary income. There certainly are places where a student can live within the budget of the loan but young people should be able to make a choice of university based on their academic potential and aspirations, not the cost of living in the relevant city.

No he didn't have to pay tuition fees out of maintenance loan. All students get a 100% tuition fees loan which Student Finance England pay directly to the uni on the student's behalf ahh I see. Thanks. Yeah seems like enough especially if they come back to you in the holidays and what with covid there's probably less socialising.

But I imagine other cities are more expensive

In Scotland
Don't want them taking out loans
We pay their rent and give them 100 a week
They work in the holidays

It depends on accommodation costs , how much you are contributing and how much ds spends!

My dd has £120 a month after accommodation ( including our top up) she has to work so she can afford to go out, travel etc.

My DD couldn’t. Her accommodation took up pretty much all of her loan money, so we paid accommodation and she lived off the loan money and work pay.

@KiloWhat

But I imagine other cities are more expensive

I think that some areas are definitely more expensive. However, having started looking at unis again with DD who will go later this year, it is apparent that all of the unis offer cheaper accommodation if you are prepared to share a room and share bathroom facilities.

Sharing a room won't be suitable for all though and you are very much reliant on the person you are sharing with to be similar to you and a sensible adult. Otherwise it is a nightmare. But yes a lot of places have a cheaper option.

@SarahBellam

In NI they don’t pay £9k fees though, so swings and roundabouts.

I’d second what other posters have said about holiday and/or part time jobs. Recruiters look much more favourably on people who have gathered experience beyond their studies. This doesn’t necessarily need to be paid work; it can be volunteering or leadership positions in Uni sports clubs or caring responsibilities, or just something that demonstrates they can take responsibility and have a bit of oomph about them. Some students are even already in managerial roles by the time they leave university (E.g. shift manager in a shop/bar) and they get snapped up. For many roles these days a degree is just the base qualification - it gets you over the barrier to entry - but it won’t make you the favoured candidate unless you have other strings to your bow.

Not all students stay in NI for uni, those who go to mainland uk still have the 9k fees as well as a reduced loan. Many students just don’t have time for what your suggesting, my son was a medical student and he wouldn’t have had time for that ( perhaps in the first 2 years but not the other 4 years he studied)

@Frazzled50yrold

My son's loan doesn't even cover his halls rental so definitely not. He works every weekend to buy his food and some basic living costs.

Presumably that's because he doesn't get full loan?

My student loan didn't even cover my rent :(