to think that £500 a month is enough for a child at uni

[FunnysInLaJardin]

we will pay his accommodation and his tuition fees will be paid, so this will just be for food and travel etc

Starving no…. 🙄
Budgeting, developing work place skills, getting away from your studies for a bit, earning a bit of cash…… some value to be had there is my only point.
Yes I’m sure there are more demanding courses. OP asked if it was a lot. I think it is!

A student on 500 a month will also have to budget though. You can learn to budget without living in poverty. Work place skills are useful but students can get them just by working in the summer holidays. They don't need to work in term time too.

Dd gets nothing, I can't afford it on disability benefits.
Obviously maximum loan though and no fees as we're in Scotland.
Her BF was the same and he got his Masters last year.

Ok you win!
I worked Sundays as a retail manager. I actually really enjoyed it.
But this is just a view sharing forum. Each to their own!

500 is extortionately a lot! I had the highest loan amount as a mature student (£8700) and that covered all my rent, all my bills, all my food and all of the trips.

Travel isn't optional FGS. How do students who aren't at a campus university get from halls to their lectures? My DS next year will have to get a bus which is £4 a day. It isn't realistically walkable. It would take at least an hour and a half, probably a bit longer.

Massive lol at the posters saying £10 pw is plenty for socialising and then suggesting it’s one night per week only and to get men to buy drinks for you.

Yuck.

Oh and whoever clutched their pearls and said YABU as uni students are adults not children as per OP - what else do you call your children when they are grown? My young adult? Ew. Offspring? Barf. They are your child - they will always be your child. Doesn’t mean they are a child.

Annoying pedantry.

I didn’t say that it’s plenty for socialising, I was just saying that that was absolutely the normal Bridget when I was a student, not just for me but for my peers too.
Our money was spent on a cheap food shop a week, and usually one cheap night out where you pre drank then didn’t spend whilst out. I think if you can afford more then why not I guess, but was really surprised that such high amounts per week is the norm on this thread when that just wasn’t the experience for me or my peers whilst at uni. We were just given bare minimum and for the rest would do without or get a job.

His accommodation is 17k for 30 weeks?! £567 per week for a room in halls?!

I would say yes it's similar to a maintenance loan isn't it? £1500 per term (3 months). I lived on this at uni x

I was on minimum loan and my parents paid my accommodation (not bills once I was in a shared house) and I was given nothing on top. I lived off my student loan, which was a LOT less than £500pm.

It is rarely charged for only 30 week. Usually it is at least 42 weeks and if private halls 52 weeks. Still a lot though.

My ds has £1000 a term (we pay his rent). Some terms are slightly longer than others, but it balances out. If he wants more, he gets a job. He worked last summer.

It isn't a lot less if you take into account you are only at university for about 9 and a half months of the year.

How long ago?
How much were your parents paying for accommodation?
How much was your student loan?

But minimum student loan is 4500 which is not "a lot less" than £16 a day. Its more.

£500 a month
= £116.27 a week
= £16.61 a day

On 3 x 10 week terms (typical) that is
£1162.70 a term
£3488.10 a year

So £500 a month is significantly less than minimum maintenance loan

I was skint at Uni
It might have been character building but it was miserable and not what I want for DC

15 years ago. The maintenance loan was a lot less than £4500 but to be fair… inflation…

My rent was £68pw in my final year (cheaper the year before)! For 9 months of the year. So they contributed about £2.5k per year. I have no idea how the OP’s son’s rent is £17k per year. Even taking into account inflation that seems ludicrous.

Just looked at the cost of IQ accommodation in Brighton and OP is correct about the price!

Quite, I didn't rise to that one, but thought the same as you!

Indeed I am. Believe me I would pay less if I could

But that’s the whole point - the loan hasn’t increased in line with inflation. It went up about 0.2% when inflation was 10%, and this pattern has been the same the past 5 years or so.

So rents, food, energy have skyrocketed and loan amounts stayed the same.

Sure the accom OP is looking at is eye watering but it’s tough to get much in Y1 below about £7k unless you are at Oxbridge.

It would have done in 2004, but OP's child is living in 2024, so...