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.

There is often a ~£6k a year between living costs and maintenance loans to be covered by the student working (term time or summer holiday / gap year) or parental contribution. Martin Lewis has done several podcasts on this and they are definitely worth a listen.

I think students need a very pragmatic view on whether it is the right choice for them to go to university. If it is the right course and if it is the right university and if it is the right time.

The costs of accommodation can vary within a university and for different universities. It's worth when you are visiting universities to ask about costs. Different cities are more expensive than others. Factor in contact hours too. If you are on a course with very low contact hours you might find it hard to justify the accommodation costs and a university closer to home would be better. It can be a fine balance between hours dedicated to the course and working to fund the course. The worst scenario is going to a university having to work too many hours to fund the degree and then missing too much of the work to get a degree result that makes having it worthwhile. So it is important to not rush the decision and make sure you have a clear plan before starting in order to make the most of any opportunity.

If you can look into courses that come with a year in industry placement or has the option for summer placements, degree apprenticeships or other types of funded courses

I did a chemistry degree in 2006-2010 and even then the maintenance loan wasn't enough. My course was 4 and a half days off lectures and lab work and with assignments I was doing 12+h a day including Saturdays and Sundays. There weren't enough hours in day to work during the term time. I worked during the summer break which usually gave me ~£1k and then I got £500-1000 from parents each year through a combination of cash when visiting and them buying me the first shop of each term. In my 4th year I had a year in industry placement at £16k a year. All of this meant I left uni with additional debt but also no savings

DS is at uni at a northern city. He lives in a city centre flat with bills included and can walk everywhere. By my calculations he’s living on about £10,500 a year because we don’t give him any money in the holidays.

but he’s very frugal, doesn’t drink alcohol and has no interest in clothes so we still buy him what he needs there.

he has £300 a month for food and socialising which he’s found to be plenty.

he’s got a loan for tuition fees but we pay living costs from a mix of his savings and I give him the £300/month. His course is really demanding so we don’t expect him to have a job in term time.

Lucky ! Nothing at my DS uni for that price !

Well he wouldn't have been going to a uni with unaffordable accomodation costs

The number of universities that are "unaffordable" is swiftly becoming the vast majority though ...

This definitely needs to be factored into the “shall we have a third” discussions…

We paid both our sons rent, which was £1400 a month for two at one point when both were away, and they lived off the minimum maintenance loan. They were lucky enough to have jobs in our home city which their employers kept open for them in the holidays.
Accomodation costs can vary wildly. DS1 was at Nottingham costing £140-150 a week. DS2 is at York currently paying £210! Both 12 month contracts.

People often suggest going to a local uni - for an awful lot of us though that’s just not remotely possible as there’s nothing within an hour or so and public transport is woeful. Also they don’t offer what your child wants to study or is the ‘wrong’ level - our closest city is Oxford, which is an hour away on an unreliable bus service. So their options are either very high tariff (Oxford) or quite low (Brooks) with nothing in between. If you live down in Cornwall, for example, you’d have a similar issue. Plymouth is miles away and doesn’t suit everyone. So many people this isn’t remotely feasible for.

This isn’t going to help OP but regular savings in a child ISA or equivalent will cover Uni costs.
We started saving with a child trust fund and only because Gordon Brown gave us a lump sum to start it but having started and set up the regular savings the dc now have enough to cover Uni.
It’s much easier to save a small amount for a long time than having to find tens of thousands in a couple of years.

It’s also a gamble whether you’ll even be able to get one of the cheaper rooms. All very well advertising accommodation from £x, but how much accommodation do they have for that price and how many students are after it?

Plus it can be a false economy if it’s cheap because it’s further from the uni, but the student then has to pay for transport.

Good job he graduated this year then isn't it? Mind you if the units didn't get students due to high accomodation costs then they'd come down

DS accomodation was walkable to campus. And there was loads and loads of it. Even rooms not filled

It won't cover everything and if you can't afford to make up the difference they'll need to either leave with more debt, or take a gap year and work full-time to build up a cushion, or both.

See that £1400 was my whole income at the time. So I couldn't have given it to DS

I have told mine that unless their chosen career is only doable with a degree then they will not go to uni.
One wants architecture so that is a must. The other isn’t sure yet. They will also need to live at home. Luckily we have a few very good universities that are commutable. If they don’t want to stay home they will have to pay it themselves

Yes, have to sub a lot as loans are means tested. Also term time jobs can be hard to get. Thankfully didn’t have an overlap.

Mine have graduated now and they cost me approximately £5k per year (overlapped by 2 years ) both went into cheaper housing in year 1, dd2 was in shared housing for 2&3 and had additional income as sponsored student, dd1 (went second) had a bedsit years 2&3 but cheap city

many parents pay the rent and then they use the min loan to live off.

If anyone with little ones is reading this, get saving asap, I saved all my child benefit money which covered most of the costs

I only had one to think about and would have loved to have started to save when when was v young but couldn’t afford to until she was 14 shes in her final year and has cost us about £9k a year (York)

does it still say on the gov website that they only need £10k a year between loan and parental contribution, thats a load of rubbish some cities charge that in rent alone does your child have a job now where they can learn skills now to find a job wherever they end up going

have to admit mine hasn’t but is able to pick up barwork when home during hols and saves all that

DD will get minimum maintenance loan. Planning a year out to work / earn money and then we will top her up, I was thinking it will be about £6k / year from us to make it work, although I know some paying £1k / month just for accommodation. Thankfully she decided against London / Bristol which had the highest costs of the cities we looked into.

My son took a gap year to earn some money before uni. He has struggled to get a job at uni because of his course hours, it's very full on and doesn't leave much time for work, plus his timetable changes weekly so he can't commit specific hours. He has done some ad hoc work for the uni where he can.
It's not easy. His loan doesn't even nearly cover his rent, so we are topping up but we can't afford much. Certainly don't have the spare £500 a month as is the expectation.
And to think my parents supported me and my sister at uni at the same time, just on my dad's salary!
Madness how much harder everything is now.

Her food doesn’t have to be more expensive… GF bread and biscuits etc aren’t a necessity when there are lots of naturally GF grains.

We have twins who have managed to choose expensive unis. I had assumed halls (about £9k no food) was a first year expense … but no private renting for 2nd year is even more expensive.
Check 2nd year expenses out before they make their decisions.

Crimey, this one has run and run! Few things, how do you check second year accommodation fees? Where do you start?