If you are fully supporting DC through uni - how much is is it really costing?

[QuandryQuaint]

As title really. DH has got a big promotion and we are looking at whether it will be possible to fully support our DC going to uni without any loans. If you are fully funding your DC would you please share what this is actually costing you per year? Assuming not in London.
Fees : £10k ish per year
Accommodation?
Basic living costs? - food, study texts/equipment, basic clothing.

Just trying to get an ideal if this is even feasible for us.
Thanks

Bath- £20k, roughly £9,500 fees, £8,000 room, £100 pw food and everything else (as she's home for roughly half the year given how long holidays are). If she needs anything extra her holiday job pays for it

A friend of mine’s daughter took a gap year and worked for most of it full time, saved up and still managed a couple of months travelling with friends in April / may. She then worked over the summer. This was mainly because her parents were not in a position to pay for her. She has had a great year, made lots of friends at her job and has really matured and grown up. I think that’s a great way of doing it.

Logically, yes, those who can afford £25k plus a year are going to be skewed towards the wealthier section of the population and therefore those who are more likely to have chosen private education. Even if numerically more come from the state sector, it will be a smaller proportion of the total state educated.

We saved from birth for house deposits, a small amount each month. With compounding and careful investment both kids will have £100k plus. The house deposit level savings were a given from the day we had kids.

We only decided to privately educate when the oldest was 6 and we have always paid out of income so uni was a bargain in contrast. The choice to fully fund that was about a month before the oldest started.

The school years were not comfortable financially but it was the right decision at the time with the situation we found ourselves in. I accept it still makes us well off that it was even a decision we could afford to make, instead of the failing school we were offered when we had to in year relocate due to a new job. We are far from oligarchs though!

It not even “high earnings”. Household income of ~£70k means minimum loan. So you could have parents on £35k each and you’d only get the minimum.

Our child’s uni halls cost £8k (northern England), minimum loan is £5k so it’s expected that parents make up the difference and that’s before any actual living costs like food, toiletries, transport, socialising etc.

What's the AIBU here?

Yes I know you don't have to earn highly only to get min loan (oh believe me I know – I am an underpaid creative and DH is a very underpaid civil servant and still DS2 got the min). But I was referencing the OP's DH getting a "big promotion" which presumably meant high earnings, that's all.

Daughter third year at Lincoln now in a house. We pay accommodation fees but her Grandad left her money which cover’s tuition. Hopefully won’t leave in debt

Oxford - Fees c£9500 pa
Accommodation c£5000 pa
Living c £100 per week

I have to say the comments about house deposit being a better return on money/better start in life for DC has got me thinking. We could possibly do both but obviously if just did deposit it would be much much higher thus reducing mortgage payments further thus making the ‘graduate tax’ less problematic. Food for thought.

Plus there aren't enough part time jobs anymore - you can't rely on your YP being able to get one/ enough hours, especially in a University city where everyone is trying to get PT jobs, especially if timetabling means they can only really work weekends. The loan system already assumes a fairly substantial parental contribution other than for the absolute poorest households.

I don't think there is a right or wrong way. Interestingly I have a colleague with a same age student daughter and he chose to fully fund uni but that would mean they would have little or no house deposit whereas we have opted to just pay rent while our DC takes out loans but will have a decent house deposit.

Psychologically I personally think knowing that you have a smaller mortgage (or indeed are able to buy a house at all) will feel better than the downside of having an extra amount coming out of your pay packet each month as most people are only interested in the net pay hitting their bank account rather than the exact split of deductions and will cease to "notice" it.

If it's not distasteful to say so, I think people factor in inheritances from their parents/children's grandparents as well and obviously that can be a huge boost to house deposits (several friends have been able to outright buy a house for their 20s children due to healthy inheritances). I know this isn't the case for me, and my children can't expect any money other than what they can earn or what we can give them. I therefore feel the best we can do is give them as much deposit as we can save and if they want more in their pay packet, it's up to them to earn it.

It's definitely an important consideration. I think if we could only do one it would be house deposit, but as we have 4 year age gaps between our 3 kids none of them should be in uni at the same time. So we're planning to use savings that we've been contributing to since they were born for house deposit then fund uni out of salary as we go. If complications crop up I'd rather they end up with a small amount of student debt and protect the deposits.

We have passive income, which will pay for uni. We're already paying school fees (£25k pa) so see this as a three year extension to that. They may get a job but we're not planning on it being available as an option.

Any inheritance I get will go towards a house deposit for them. Plus we're investing to top up their deposit so they could potentially buy a house outright rather than have a mortgage when they start out. That's the plan anyway! If they want to upsize their house in the future they can borrow or save to do so.

They will also have dividend income from their ISAs as a passive income stream when they hit 18, so that can top up their monthly income at Uni and onwards. We will max out their allowance annually to boost that up as much as possible. They are already learning how to manage this so they can grow it themselves going forward.

Gosh. SO much spoon feeding. I’m astounded that some kids are getting £800 pcm for food and fun etc.

Obviously I expect to pay something for living costs but my kids will have to get a job, any job, and not just for pin money. Granted they aren’t doing nursing or medicine where I think this is challenging.

it’s also a terrible mistake to not work when at uni. Graduating without any work history is a very bad idea these days.