To be worried about university fees?

[ChoresChoresChores]

I had a ‘discussion’ with my partner last night about my worries about money. One of which is the upcoming potential cost of university. My DS is nearly 17 so uni costs are very much on the horizon. For his best chance at a career he will need to be in a city in order to make connections and get potential work experience. I also have another 2 child both of whom are going to want to go to University.

Because of their ages there will be 2 years where I have 2 children at Uni.

I’m trying to cut costs, save as much as I can but I’ve been told I’m unreasonable because their loans will cover what they need. I know from calculators that this is simply not true and that they also only qualify for minimum help because of my earnings (not higher rate tax but top end).

So realistically if you have kids heading towards uni, how much are you expecting to have to subside them? Am I crazy for actually worrying? I full expect them to get jobs in fact the 2 oldest are both currently working.

That’s such a lot to be paying on your income!

Basically the tuition loan pays that cost directly to uni. If your DC only gets a small maintenance loan due to parents earnings then parents should top up their child to the equivalent of the full maintenance loan as that is the minimum a DC will need. If you don't do that your DC will be under pressure to work when they should be studying. They won't be able to focus properly if they are working all hours just to eat. I really wish schools would make parents aware of their responsibility to their DC when they are in Year 7 to give more time for saving. DC who have part time jobs whilst at school can help but really the onus is on the parent. Other ways parents can help is to provide free board if the DC lives at home whilst going to a local university. I have saved for years to support my foster son who because of additional needs would not be able to work as well as studying.

And the nature of the course they are planning to study. There are considerable workload and teaching hours differences between a med degree and a business degree. English lit will have fewer teaching hours again with considerable time expected in the library but gives more flexibility on working hours

Foster son pays £8080 for accommodation at Worcester but that includes everything except for food. Because he has been in care he gets a full loan but most of this goes on his accommodation and course materials so we still give him money to live on every week for food, toiletries, socialising.

On the bright side - they probably cost you £50 a week in food and more in pocket money and hobbies and transport so that might help

There might be a possibility of attending a university that will give a nursery. My foster son was offered £5 k bursery to attend UCE Birmingham but it didn't quite do the course he wanted.

My DS had maximum loan. He managed on that ok. Had a part time job that paid for his car and social life expenses

I have two DC at university this year and it is cripplingly expensive for me. I can't afford to top them up by £11,000 in total, no matter what the government think. I did have money put aside but they weren't supposed to both be at university at the same time since there's four years between them. I have made sure their accomodation costs are covered then given another £60 per week for other expenses including food. If they need any more money then it has to come from money they've saved from working. Neither has managed to find a job at university though.

I think the worst thing is that they have to manage on less money than their friends. Some have parents who are able to top their loans up to the maximum loan amount or higher. Some have less well off parents so they are getting the maximum loan. Whereas my kids are having to scrimp and save every penny. And it doesn't seem fair that the students from the least well off backgrounds will end up with the biggest debts at the end of university.

If money is going to be an issue then your child needs to apply to universities with lower accomodation costs or consider living at home. One of my DC is at Wolverhampton and has been in campus accomodation the whole time which is much cheaper than private flats where you often have to pay for the whole year rather than just term time.

Also it's not complusary to be in halls for the first year. Where my DS went there was a " student village" and he lived there te first 2 years and got a flat with his ( then graduated) girlfriend in 3rd year

We paid rent, DCs lived off loan (minimum) and p/t job wages.

£500pm (over 12 months) is realistic. As you know, tuition fees are covered by the loan, so that's out of the equation. If he's staying in halls for the first year (most do), this can vary massively and unfortunately you don't get to choose which one your DC goes to - you can express a preference, but that's all. (My DD's friend requested one in the £180pw range but was allocated one for £250pw 😨.) I believe it's standard to pay this for 42 weeks per year but this might vary.

So, assuming the accommodation is £8k for the first year, the maintenance loan covers £4.5k of that, so the £3.5k has to be covered by you/your DC. This is £300 per month. On top of that, you have food, transport home, socialising etc.

The way we work it is DD gives us their maintenance loan and we pay for the accommodation. We also give her £25pw food and some rail fares. We've also given her £25pw spends for the first term, but that will stop in January so she'll need to get a job.

Sorry that's a bit lengthy! It's a bit of a minefield to start with, but you get used to it. Feel free to DM me if you need to.

If they get minimum loan which is about 5k, a lot of students live on this and their parents pay the rent (and possibly some other bits depending on what costs they have - eg some parents also pay for travel home). My son pays £5500 in halls which is one of the cheapest we saw (and luckily one of the best universities for his chosen course), while others cost £9-10k. Accommodation costs and distance have to be a factor for many when choosing a uni. My son gets about 8.5k loan. I give him £50 per week for groceries and he draws £50 from his loan money (after rent) to cover everything else. It's a struggle as I am a single mum and his dad doesn't contribute.

Have a look on money saving expert. Lots of useful info on there.

But if he had a part time job that paid for stuff then surely it did all cost more than the max loan. My DS uni accommodation in year 1 is £9k. That would leave him a bit over £1k for all living expenses (food etc) for the full year which is utterly unrealistic.

I work in this area.

I won't repeat the info and advice you've already been given but I will say that most universities have hardship funds that students can apply for annually. They vary significantly in terms of eligibility and payment size but you've got to take the approach that 'it all helps' and 'it's worth a try'.

Things that help (other than parents' money):

• choice of city
• staying living in family home
• a student overdraft facility used carefully
• student working PT and saving before they come
• gap year to earn and save
• budgeting skills
• cooking skills (you wouldn't believe how many students live off of expensive takeaways)
• student working PT during term-time and/or
• student working FT during vacations
• cheap mobile phone contracts
• student not needing to pay for travel within their uni city
• prescription prepayment certificates
• rent, rent, rent - get this right and the rest is easier (usually means applying early so not going through clearing, for example)

I met with a DfE (Department for Education) official recently and begged them to increase the minimum amount of Maintenance Loan and/or the 'top' household income threshold (it's been the same for a generation - it should be at least £100k now rather than just over £62k for students moving out of the family home and studying outside of London). Nothing will come of my conversation with her but I wanted you to know that universities are telling the DfE this stuff (they already know it anyway).

I will just finish by saying that if you have two children at uni at the same time, most of the time that makes no difference to their Loan entitlement. However, if one or both are at a London uni and they both move out of the family home during term then you could ask Student Finance England about split contributions - increasing their Maintenance Loan entitlement a bit).

Op I’d suggest you do a budget to
work out how much your child will need. Dd1 is year 13 and hoping to go to uni next year. We’ve sat down together to work out a budget. So far we have an excel spreadsheet with a lot of headings and a few estimates of what she’d need. I need to do more research on accommodation, food and utilities although they’re harder as we don’t know which uni she’s going to. In theory we have the income to support her but it’s been a useful exercise as she’ll need to know how to budget when she’s older anyway.

A lot of people at my uni lived at home and commuted in. This is also the norm in many countries as it makes it more affordable. Are you near enough to a university to do this?

Paid for luxuries like car and social life. He still managed to have savings at the end of it also. Accomodation was £113 a week for 48 weeks so 5254. It would've cost him lots more if he wanted fancy rooms with ensuite etc

Is this very recent? Because costs have shot up (even compared to last year).
We are literally in the situation where what was possible, say 3 or 4 years ago, now simply isn't. The maintenance loan has not gone up either in England so is effectively worth less.

And students can't always guarantee their choice of accommodation - particularly with more and more wanting the cheaper rooms.

DS picked one of the cheapest universities and costs have gone up a bomb this year, especially rental costs.

My DC took student finance to pay for the tuition fees and live at home rent-free, their choice. There are several good unis within commuting distance. They also work part-time in jobs they've had a for a few years and they are loving life!

I would make it clear to them that they should check out the accommodation costs when considering where to apply. I went to Durham which was catered - it felt expensive when I went but with the cost of food and fuel I'm not so sure it is now. However, the middle year when you have to "live out" of halls in a draughty shared terrace can have high rent.

Somewhere like Liverpool is absolutely teeming with massive blocks of student flats which are fairly reasonable all bills in. Bristol is going the same way.

in order to get your choice of accommodation my dd found it easier that she chose it then deferred a year, as the accommodation opens in May when the results arent available until august.

2 years ago

Looking at their website today and got this. DS was in a 4 bed share so was cheaper

My plan is to pay for their rent, they will get a loan for fees and will need a job to top up what is needed on top of the loans they can get (lowest available). We are saving now but won’t have it all saved ahead of time, but hope to have enough saved that I just keep the pot topped up with the monthly amount we put in.

Eldest is 15, 3 year gap so shouldn’t have overlap unless eldest does a 4 year course, not sure if either or both will go yet. DS is flitting between 2 careers, one that needs uni and one that doesn’t.