WTF! Anyone else horrified at this Guardian article about "student" food?

[MrsTittleMouse]

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/21/student-cooking-recipes

It all costs an absolute fortune! My DH has a good job, but we don't have enough grocery budget to cook half this stuff. What are they all on?

And anyway, your figures show that the majority of Oxbridge/Russell Group students don't come from private schools (and therefore, by your definition, have parents who can afford to pay for their university education)

What about non-Oxbridge/RG students? I'm betting that an even smaller proportion are from private schools.

And equally there are people who could have, if they'd wanted or needed to, sent their children to a private school who instead sent them to a good state school instead, but nonetheless intend to underwrite their children's university education. There's probably at least as many of those as people who could afford 7 years of private school fees but not 10.

I'd need a lot of convincing that the rate of admission from private schools isn't a pretty good proxy for the rate of students being fully funded by their parents. For every "private but not underwritten" edge-case, there's a matching "state but underwritten" equivalent.

Well, we might have to agree to disagree on this one...I think I've forgotten what my original point was supposed to be anyway!

"And anyway, your figures show that the majority of Oxbridge/Russell Group students don't come from private schools"

So what? The contention was that there were very few students who could afford luxurious living. I'm merely pointing out that it's more than "very few".

"What about non-Oxbridge/RG students? I'm betting that an even smaller proportion are from private schools."

Obviously. But residential university life, as opposed to people living at home, is still heavily dominated by the middle classes.

People starting university now were born in 1992. The middle class parents are probably now in their late 40s, having either gone to university in about 1980--83 or got a job in about 1980. A significant number of them will have paid their mortgages off. All of them who bought houses in the 1980s (care to guess at rates of parents in rented housing amongst full-time students going at 18? I'll bet it's lower than the population at large) will be sat on huge positive equity. A non-zero number will have all four grandparents having died, and the parents of people going to university now are the people getting huge capital injections from the equity growth of their parents' houses.

Sure, there's student poverty. But there are a lot of students who are living very comfortably.

And, of course, the question is "what are the finances of students whose parents buy the Guardian like?" To which the answer is "solid". Apart from anything else, buying a daily broadsheet newspaper that costs a quid is a pretty good indicator of not being that skint.

not read all the thread, but there is nothing in this world that beats tomato sauce with a tin of tomatoes, cheapo onion and a handful of dried oregano, mixed with pasta shells and smothered with melted cheese. Some days, no matter how much 'proper' exotic food we have in the cupboard I still crave this. Nowadays I might spice it up with a dash of worcester sauce and perhaps some red peppers, but even done without. Its just delicious. I lived on this as a student. Along with good ol baked beans on toast! Which I also still love.

£9.50, that would feed me all week!

Dh and I lived in damp hovels as students and frankly it did affect your studies...... you spent hours in the library to keep warm and not spend money on electricity.
I do wonder when you see them all out in town spending their money on clothes and then out on the piss on a school night when exactly they are getting the time to study between hang overs.
I shall not be bank rolling mine.

I don't really think the point of this thread is about how many university students went to private school and can therefore afford to eat expensive food. The point is that a generation ago when I was at university many of my friends there were from very wealthy backgrounds, went to public schools including Rugby etc, but they all lived on a tight budget and were not given loads of money by their parents. They all lived in the same awful rented student houses, the same as everyone else, and they all ate on a budget. It was just what students did then and what they expected.

"And, of course, the question is "what are the finances of students whose parents buy the Guardian like?" To which the answer is "solid". Apart from anything else, buying a daily broadsheet newspaper that costs a quid is a pretty good indicator of not being that skint."

I'm sorry, but that's just daft. My Mum's a dyed-in-the-wool Guardian reader, and my Dad reads the Telegraph. They still didn't have the income to pay for private school, or university for me or my siblings.

Also, see this Independant article here

Here's a quote "Today's survey coincides with a study by financial experts that shows student debt has risen by 167 per cent in the past decade - from £1.2 bn to £3.2bn. The study, by uSwitch.com, says it will take the average student 11 years to clear their debts." (the article is from 2007)

Hmmm thinks have changed since my Butter Beans in Cheese Sauce(tin butter beans,cheese and yog)from Grub on a Grant.

Having said that when I was a student we didn't have cars,laptops,mobile phones,Ipods etc either,maybe designer food is a must have too these days.

Pampered is what they are,in my day.......

I do take your point tokyo. But I don't think it's fair to conflate students and their parents. I could (I know now) have afforded a TV license at uni, but the thought wouldn't have occurred to me - nobody had them, it was just known to be too expensive.

For all the students who flash their money about (whether it's daddy's or off the credit card), there are others who just fall into the natural student lifestyle of wasting money on booze and clubbing, but never thinking of buying anything except the value range because it's just what's done.

Pavlov - ooh yes! We always had ours with a good amount of chili when it was cold. Yum. And if you thinned the sauce down with water it was tomato soup, and you put chopped-up frankfurter sausages or beans in if you're feeling in need of something really filling.

Yes, and then there's the students like my friend, who went to a top London day school but on huge scholarships, because her parents often had so little money that they'd borrow from her to pay bills. She could cook well from scratch essentially because she had to learn as a teenager to feed her and her sister.

Remember a) few pupils, as a whole, go to private school b) not every family has two parents c) not all families have two parents who work, for whatever reason d) not all people inherit anything at all when grandparents/parents die d) a lot of students have to work part time to fund studies, which is more difficult if you have an intensive course or other factors at stake. Yes, there are a lot of wealthy students there - I studied with many of them - but there are also those who had to take a gap year to work to fund themselves through, or work part-time to eat, or live on pennies because not all parents can subsidise them. (A schoolfriend of mine got the grades to get A-levels, had she wanted to do them, but was told she needed to get a job because her mother couldn't afford for her to live at home if she wasn't working. As I knew people in that position, taking money from my parents in my 20s seemed a bit morally suspect.)

Agree with you on the Graun, though. It stopped being a socialist gazette a long while ago.

A generation ago the canonical middle class holiday was camping in France. Now people rent houses. Standards of living are higher.

I spent a week at Royal Holloway in student accommodation a couple of weeks ago. It appeared to be amongst the older and, indeed, grottier places: a five rooms, one kitchen flat. Nonetheless, every room had a shower and toilet (we shared), every room was single (ditto for some), there was fast broadband, a phone socket, decent amounts of power, etc, etc. Standards of living are higher across the board. It's hardly surprising this maps into student life. My parents (university in the 1950s) were fairly scathing about how decadent it all was in the 1980s.

Another housemate of mine went to Millfield and ate only reduced-to-clear food. He just wasn't a foodie, so was happy to live off six Value pork pies and four yoghurts per day.

Very interesting article that (apart from comparing nominal pounds and not adjusting for the uptake rate). The really interesting part is:

"The figures show the universities where students are in most debt are Falmouth - a new university in Cornwall, where students' average debt per year is £8,030, then Glamorgan, where the average debt is £7,942, and then Thames Valley, where the debt is £7,814."

It would be really interesting to get behind those numbers. I suspect that the reason is that students in those sorts of places are the least likely to be underwritten by their parents.

Tokyo if you see my post below about the struggle to find work for my DH's classmates, that's Glamorgan Uni. he's studying at the AAT (science of the engineering type) so will be out each day by 8am, back for 9.30 and will ahve to fit his work around that. Clearly a reduction of opportunity to warn.

Not mentioning that at interview they told him straught out that if he was going to work they didn;t want him as they always found that students didn;t work out that way. DH is one of only 2 mature students they;ve ever had over 25, and the only one to survive year one financially.

Those students who do work also have to runc ars to cope with the hours- eg getting from digs into cardiff where there is bar work- whilst there is a station at Uni, rural sareas still limit public transport options, especially if it's for a 3am nightclub staff job!

tokyoambu whilst I take your point that there are a lot of kids at RG universities whose parents have money, it's not only the few with big bursaries whose parents don't pay - lots of kids at boarding schools are paid for by the Services/Diplomatic Corps, and AFAIK that money just stops when you leave.

The silliest thing in the Guardian Saturday Student Cooking pullout was the suggestion right at the back that Borough Market was a cheap place to buy food!

I learnt what you could do with mince sherphers pie then left over mince jar of dolmio so Spag bol then check chilli sauce over left overs then cook rice so 3 meals at least

I know someone who actually left student accomodation and chose to do the 2hr round trip everyday becuase he couldn't afford to feed himself and he could cook at all.

Well I was a RG student with a single parent on benefits. I'm sure there are still one or two of my kind in RG universities now...

Oh, and BTW my mum still read the Guardian, even though she was a single parent on benefits.

Why should student meals just be ultra cheap and quick?

I actually think it is quite healthy to focus on high quality ingredients, and on enjoying the preparation time.

I live in a university town, and you can't get into Costa Coffee because it is always heaving with students buying £3 coffees and £2 muffins. I really would prefer my student DS to be spending his money on proper food.

AS a aprent I as ofered an RG place but ahd to turn it down as I coupldn;t make rent plus food and everything else work even with a working DH on just under average wage (we were in a palce where virtually nobody earned average wage, his income good there (managerial) but v poor in Brizzle)

Had to decline and go for lesser place instead (and really it was, sure not alla re but this place yes).

Had I been single, younger, i'd have cut back to beanfeast and cereal but couldn;t do that to the boys.

A friend who was a mature student recruiter at a similar palce told me that's really common.

'Why should student meals just be ultra cheap and quick?'

Because most would rather spend their money on booze, fags, expensive coffees, concerts and club entry fees (if they can't get in with no cover charge).

Duh.

It's not just that though

DH's best mate is irish, hadn't been paid student finance until the last few days of every term, wages cover rent and there's nowt else left (trust me, boring git goews nowhere!).

And if youc cannot find work (and student servic es locally panicking about this) and your aprents unwilling or unable to help the student finance doesn;t cover rent