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

I didn't realise that you didn't get student loans in Jersey. I wonder how other students manage if they aren't from well off families.

you can get a maintenance grant if your income is low enough, but its not nearly enough to pay for even accommodation in some parts of the UK.

Most people I know who are middle income and so don't get the grant have to borrow to fund their DC.

Low income families will really struggle

Yes - I'd think that figure is in the right ballpark for student in expensive city on a full time academic course which doesn't allow time for term time work.

Mine gets €200 and I have to force him to take it! We pay phone. No travel costs as he uses bike. It's for good and socialising and he has a part time job too.

I have 2 at uni. Minimum maintenance loan. We top up accommodation costs and give them about £500 a month for living expenses. They can live on that (and both did for the first term of so) but they now both (voluntarily) have jobs, generally 2 evenings a week. DC2 who has historically been a big spender transfers most of her wages to a savings account for a travel fund, but uses it to treat herself occasionally. DD1 earns less (shorter shifts and some weeks then only need her one evening) but is less of a spender anyway.

DDs know lots of people who get more from their parents. We could give them more (still much cheaper than private school fees!) but they actually appreciate having to think about budgeting a bit and enjoy earning their own money.

They also know even more people on much less who either work lots more hours than them or are limited in socialising. This has curtailed DD2's socialising a bit because she does not really want to do lots of things that some of her friends cant do.

@WhyIOughtTo well I hope she likes him enough to still be funding him at 40yo. Young people should learn independence.

Wow. What a life.

I worked since I was 16 saving for uni. 2 days after my last GVSE exam i worked until the Friday bwfore I started A Levels. No school holiday fun..no trips. Just worked full time all holidays. At uni I had Easter and summer jobs. My parents helped with shopping when returning after holidays but that was it.
I came out of uni debt free and started driving lessons got a car and comfortably paid for rent.

I think we need to encourage kids if that is there dream - uni they need to get jobs and play majority if not all themselves. It is a life lesson and they will thank you later if they have a good whad on their shoulders.

Nobody is saying they don’t work during the holidays.

it’s ridiculous to compare to our own university days 20-30 years ago. The cost of living is completely different, tuition fees now exist and student accommodation is crazily expensive.

How long ago was this? Did you have fees of over 9k a year to pay? I don’t know any teenagers today who could work and fund uni themselves, leaving with no debt. That is at least 18k per year. It’s completely different now. My rent was £160 a month and I had no fees when I went to university. It isn’t comparable.

Our university experiences are mostly irrelevant and not comparable. Hell, my grocery bill from 3 years ago is irrelevant, given food inflation.

Op, that’s fine. I’ve never understood the approach by many that making a child’s uni life hard financially is good for them.

If you can give your child 500 then give them it. If you can afford more then give that if you want to.

There’s no glory in having your child eat pot noodles and other kinds of junk foods in order to prepare them for life. There are hundreds of other ways you can do it instead.

Ours gets the minimum maintenance loan and we pay his rent, gym and phone. I think it’s plenty. He certainly seems quite well off!

Well quite. If he gets the minimum maintenance loan and you're paying his rent, then he's on the equivalent of £151 a week for a 30 week university year which is more than £500 a month.

This is why it's necessary to look at what they are living on not "how much is being topped up".

Well quite. If he gets the minimum maintenance loan and you're paying his rent, then he's on the equivalent of £151 a week for a 30 week university year

But the loan is meant to cover the year, not just while at uni. That's why final year students get less - the loan finishes at the end of summer term rather than lasting until the start of the next academic year. Mine loan equates to about £85/week. Yes, they probably need less during the holidays if they come home, but not all students do.

Additionally the employment market has changed a lot over recent years. It really isn't as easy as it used to be to get jobs to fit round studies. Many students struggle to find part time jobs.

But I suspect most people here who give their student child £500 a month are only doing that during term time. We certainly are. During the holidays we feed him and house him but if he wants spending money for going out drinking, he works.

So a child who is living on the minimum maintenance loan (rent already paid) has far more money than a child who is only getting £500 a month during term time (£16 a day).

If you want to calculate it on the basis of year round then actually my child who is being given £500 a month during term time is only getting £260 a month (if calculated over 12 months - £8 a day)

But I suspect most people here who give their student child £500 a month are only doing that during term time.

Yes, that's true for me. £16 a day is really not that much in London with transport and food costing what they do.

@Era I appreciate that. I was simply pointing out that the student loan (however much if it they get) is intended to cover the whole year, not just the time at uni.

Absolutely not the point of the thread - but if you're at uni in London, would you really be forced to get the tube/bus multiple times every single day due to tight timings between one lecture and another? That must be an absolute nightmare. So is there barely any student accommodation near any uni buildings, or is it a total luck of the draw etc? My cousin went to a London uni in the early 2010's and walked everywhere, I think he had one day a week where the timing was tight and he occasionally had to do a single tube journey, but then he was on a film course - it must vary massively between course depending on where the buildings are.

@Foxblue DS was in halls near his uni the first year. Now he is at the end of his second year so sharing a flat further away, and not always walkable. It was a nightmare to even get that flat. London acco has become incredibly difficult.

Contact hours for a film course and STEM courses are rather different too.

@Foxblue lots of the London unis have limited Halls accommodation so many first years rely on private halls which are used by students from a mix of unis so not necessarily located for a specific uni.
Additionally, uni facilities are spread out over different areas.
And as lentilweaver says, accommodation post first year is a nightmare and very costly. Students end up living further out in cheaper areas, not necessarily near any of the bits of the uni they may need.
On the plus side (!) students studying at London unis can get a student oyster card which gives them reduced fares on TfL transport. And all students can purchase a 16-25 Railcard which reduces fares on national rail services. The 2 can be linked in London.

That sounds exhausting - and I'm guessing he has to move around to different buildings during the day - are they scattered in opposite directions too? Absolute nightmare.
And yes, on the contact hours! I also did a creative course - 8 hours of contact time one year! Two of those watching a film... my friend doing a law degree naturally found it hilarious. Ironically, I'm in STEM now.

This is exactly how I feel. I want him to be able to have a good quality varied diet and not live in junk because that is all he can afford.

I want his time away at uni to be as enjoyable and comfortable as possible. We've cared for him for 18 years and it seems perverse that this should stop just because he is moving out to study.

We can afford to give him £500 a month during term time and so that's what we will do!

Totally agree with this. There are a section on MN - who went to uni themselves it seems, that think that because they eked out a tenner on beans and pasta for £10 a month and shared a rotting bathroom with 40 others that their kids should do the same. And so should everyone else.

It is quite bizarre - things have moved on, people.

I also wonder if a lot of it is also to do with DC that have boarded - so they are used to shit food and sharing a bathroom with multiple strangers.

Wow! That's £470 more a month than I ever got!
My parents didn't give me anything bar £100 to get me started the first week or two, and the occasional food shop.

I had a job after 2 months at uni that lasted all the way through. I worked 9 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. Is was exhausting but great to have my own money as I couldn't rely on my parents for handouts (I know lots of people can). I remember begging my mum to give me some money so I could buy a warm jumper and she gave me £20 😅 they weren't badly off, they just wanted me to earn and be independent.
I'll be doing the same for DD. It's good for them.

I think £500 a month is a touch too generous and dare I say 'easy'.

Yeah alright. Good luck to them paying for rent and living costs based on working at the weekends only.

If your child gets minimum loan at £4500 they'll need to be working a lot of hours and they'll still be coming out with loads of debt (£45k for a three year course). Plus this is assuming they can even get a job for the hours they need and still do all the work and reading required for their course.

Your experience decades ago isn't relevant to today's costs.