do you fund living costs during holidays too - particularly Oxbridge

[Freeandfancy]

My son is at Oxford and we pay full maintenance - but the terms are super short - eight weeks - this year he will spend 26/52 weeks at university. His rent is affordable (7600 per annum) and food is subsidized in college. He says that most people give their children money in the holidays as well (this current holiday is six weeks). We are in London so I will give him money for bus and tube transport as it is exorbitant (he spent 12 pounds today alone) and he lives with us and I provide food etc. What do other parents do?

I know students at Oxford are not supposed to work in term time but my ds did some tutoring, no more that 3 hrs a week which earnt him enough during term time to have some luxuries. It was with an on line agency and carried on into some of the holidays. It didn't impact his academic work.
He worked in the summer of 1st year in a pub locally, then had internships for 2nd and 3rd year summers - which were paid and so was pretty self sufficient in the holidays. As a pp says, internships and work experience are vital in securing a graduate position so good to make an early start!

We have funded DS (STEM at Cambridge) by feeding and accommodating him through the holidays because he's basically just studied - however, in the long summer breaks he has had internships so has earned money.

That said, we haven't given him any actual money above and beyond the money we give him for maintenance for the year becuase we have found that his accommodation is much cheaper and he lives a lot more frugally than my DD (at Notts Uni) so manages on the maintenance loan. We do do the occasional big shop for him or send treats/money for extras when needed but generally he's managed to live well off the maintenance money (certainly during the academic years to the long vac)

I don't think most people realise the mountain of work at Oxbridge so xmas and Easter holidays involve more work.

However, he could work over the summer. My son tutors A level and GCSE students (stem) and it pays well. There are summer schools and courses.

With his Oxbridge background could he help with interview practice and entrance exams (depending in the subject)?

Yes. He has a monthly allowance all year round.

So 6 months and uni and 6 months of holidays? Not a chance - both of ours have jobs each holiday and we expect them to save that money to go towards the next terms cost!

I worked during the summer and Christmas holidays but not Easter because I had exams coming up. I used that money to fund me through the holidays or saved up from my student loans.

Both of my sons worked during university holidays, and also during term time. DS2's degree was from Oxford. No need to subsidise them over the holidays, (other than by not charging them rent)

I think it depends how much maintenance you are giving. If you're just giving him equivalent to maximum maintenance loan and his rent is £7600, that gives him about £100 a week in term time, which will likely leave him with a bit left over particularly with subsidised food.

He will be surrounded by lots of students from wealthy families though.

I would encourage him to get a job in the summer; I appreciate it will be difficult for him to find a job in the shorter holidays and he's not meant to work in term time.

it's a shame you've left it until now to have the conversation - my DD used the summer before university to build up savings on the expectation she would use them to cover extras.

@Freeandfancy We let DDs spent it term time and when back here we paid for quite a lot but they kept the allowance from us. We didn’t see the loan as being for the whole year. I don’t know anyone who thought it was. Loads goes on rent for the semesters anyway. That money is not available in the summer - it’s been spent. So whatever is left might not be much! If dc can get a job/intern, great, but many struggle now. We just paid for what they needed in the summer within reason and certainly holidays and food. We assumed money from loan and our contributions were for them to spend or save.

We paid the hall fees or rent for ours and they had the minimum student loan for living expenses. It was down to them to eke it out or work to supplement it.

It's not clear what you are doing - are you giving money each week and paying the rent/halls? How about calculating how much the minimum loan works out at per week excluding the summer holidays and give that. I wouldn't expect Oxbridge students to work in the Christmas or Easter hols if they have exams at the start of term but I'd encourage a summer job.

My daughter is studying vet med. This academic year she has to work unpaid for 14 weeks in her holidays so yes, we give her the same amount every month regardless. Luckily we can afford it. If we couldn’t then I probably wouldn’t.

It isn’t 6 months of ‘holidays’ though.
The ‘8 week oxbridge terms’ are (at least on some courses!) rather fictional. That’s just the ‘full term’ when lectures happen and the students must be there. But the ‘whole terms’ are longer, and apart from revision/consolidation/essays which need doing in the Xmas and Easter vacs, there may be other things outside of the 8 weeks - DD had supos and some mocks not within them.

What we did for all kids was to pay accommodation and then they took out the (minimum) maintenance loan to pay for anything else, budgeting with it however they wanted.
I would agree that he shouldn't take a paid job over Easter, thinking about it. But he also shouldn't be expecting you to fund him over and above loan-plus-lodgings.

DS1 was Oxbridge with shorter terms, DS2 at a uni wiht longer terms. I was happy to feed them and I paid their phones and about £50pcm, but that was it.

They both earned money by doing some freelance work, ad hoc, and selling stuff during the short breaks, and getting seasonal work in bars, cafes and tourist places over the long holidays.

Dd is at Bath. We cover all expenses during Xmas and Easter vacations and she has a job in the summer and also does some paid work at the university.

Yes, we've funded my daughter throught the holidays so far (she's in her first year) but she is applying for work during the summer holidays.

It's an intense workload, much more than my other kid got at a non-Oxbridge uni. He managed to work a couple of shifts per week in a bar and saved up money that way for the holidays.

We top ours up to the equivalent of the max loan - obviously accommodation comes out of that then I asked them how they wanted the rest split - term time only or including the holidays. They went for term time only.

If they want/need more money then they need to pick up some work shifts during the holidays.

They are allowed to work in the summer holiday. Others may have parents who can afford to fund them in the summer, but some don’t and that’s life.

It is ‘advised’ not to work, if he is managing his studies he could work.

Mine work in the holidays. We could afford for them not too but that’s not real life. It has also really helped them to realize the value of money. If they couldn’t find a job I would encourage babysitting.

On DDs course, they weren’t merely ‘allowed’ to work during the summer, it was actually a course requirement to progress to the third year that they’d done a certain amount of relevant internship!

It’s going back a bit but my parents didn’t give me anything during holidays.

I stayed up and worked at Cambridge as much as I could - there were quite a lot of opportunities to earn money through my college doing things like being around to help during the interviews (invigilating written tests, being a “buddy” in the jcr etc), working at conferences, and doing the annual telephone fundraising campaign, then I supplemented that with paid internships in 2nd and 3rd year.

I have one at Oxford, not supposed to have a job other than through the Summer holiday. She has worked every Summer but in jobs related to her course, not well paid at all. This year she is doing a Masters so will be doing academic work all Summer . So yes, we have supported her, and will continue to do so as long as she is in education.

We gave our Cambridge student the top up to max of means tested loan, paid in three termly amounts (his choice). We also paid his cheap phone contract. He came home for hols in the first few years (medicine, so at university for a long time) as he had to vacate his hall room. We provided food in the hols, living as part of the family at home. He worked for much of the summers, and usually at Christmas in the shop he’d worked at in the 6th form. Easter hols was usually revising. We didn’t give him money as such, but treated him sometimes. He found work doing mock interviews, and eventually tutoring for another college, tho strictly speaking not supposed to work in term time. He didn’t really spend much on clothes, socialising etc but was often saving for ski trips.

I'm in the same position but ds has full loan and as a result extra money from college too. He also had other savings from part-time job he had in sixth form and allowance/past birthdays etc. I top up the loan so he can save more as he wants postgrad studies too. Last vacation he did some work in the first week or two at his sixth form invigilating mock exams. This vac he's not working and not sure about summer yet. He has plenty of money saved for socialising but obviously I feed him all meals (unless he goes out). I think if they're studying hard and on the minimum loan I would pay some sort of allowance but reduced to reflect the fact that they're living at home.