Fees payable for overseas student - Guildford

[Hisappotomus]

My nephew is going to start at Guildford in September. He's an overseas student and has completed his foundation course.
For complicated and personal reasons I am having to lend him money to pay his fees/accommodation for probably 6 months.
He's overseas at the moment (and not very pro-active) but says he has no idea of when he has to pay the fees or how much he has to pay.
He has given me a note of his accommodation fees and has paid his £250 deposit.
The rest sounds a bit implausible. Is it?

That was very much son’s experience (Kingston in his case). Once he actually started the term there was a place he could login and it told us where to transfer the money too, but we had basically to work how much to pay ourselves. And in the last year when fees had gone up we only realised this by him logging in, seeing he was not enrolled and sending a query to find out why.
I was expecting some kind of invoice but it never materialised

Quite bizarre. Can you tell me if you had a complete note of what the cost of his course was before he started? I imagine that's the case (and my nephew should be able to work out roughly the fees).

I'm trying to work out how much I need to get together.

Has he got his visa sorted?

He's got a British passport.

You should be able to find the course fees on the university website just to give you some idea of what you’d need to commit to but it’s the students themselves who have all the relevant information. Also regarding accommodation, I currently have two grandchildren in the uk as international students and their accommodation had to be paid by yesterday. I think you need to ask him about his payment, also did you manage to sort out a guarantor. We just get family to do it but there are companies who do it for a fee. I shall ask my daughter tomorrow about the payment of fees, it’s all very different from when my children were there. That said, a poster further down the thread has posted very similar to conversations I’ve heard between my daughter and ger children.

What is the guarantor for? Thanks

It’s a person who guarantees to pay the cost of the student accommodation in case the student runs into arrears.

I wonder if that is a requirement? I wasn't involved when he enrolled for his foundation course (apart from being his emergency next of kin). The money is not an issue per se (in the long term). It's just for this next (first) session of real university I need to lend him money for the course, accommodation and living fees.

It's like trying to pull teeth with him and all I need to get is figures and dates and he's not very forthcoming. He's also lived a very sheltered life and doesn't appear to be confident about asking for information from the university. I'm trying to find out what information he should have before I put a bit more pressure on him to get it. It's his future after all.

If it’s University of Surrey, then the fee information is on the website - fees vary by course but the international undergrad fees start at around £20k per year. If you know the name of the course then you can look up the amount.

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/fees-and-funding/tuition-fees/undergraduate-2026-entry

The payment schedule is also on the website - for undergrads:

First instalment: 50 per cent of your tuition fee is payable 10 days after the date of your invoice, coinciding with the start of Semester 1.

Second instalment: The balance of the fee is payable on or before 31 January, coinciding with the start of Semester 2.

https://my.surrey.ac.uk/money/fees/payment-schedules

Looks like he will need to log in to his Surrey self service account to pay it. Semester 1 starts on Sept 28th.

If he’s in uni halls then I doubt he’d need a guarantor - that is usually for private lets.

This is so very helpful, thank you. I'm going to direct him to the website and provide me with the information I need so that I can help him. It's all there. He should have known that.

You will either have to pay the years accommodation fees upfront without a guarantor or monthly with one. Quite honestly I am a bit dubious about what he’s telling you.

@sabrinathwaiteMy daughter went to Bristol stayed in uni halls and we needed a guarantor. My other children and grandchildren who have also studied in the UK stayed in private university accommodation and also needed guarantors.

@Hisappotomussomething you’ve said has prompted me to ask of your nephew is ready for university and if he has any additional needs. The only reason I ask is because he’s going to have to get used to asking questions about how things work and assuming he’s over 18 no one is going to be able to phone and ask the questions on his behalf. Also, if he does have any additional needs the university should know as he will be given extra support to make sure he stays afloat even keeping up with life/uni admin related things.

@TheTwerkingDuchessOfMonteshitshow We’ve done Edinburgh and Birmingham uni owned and privately owned halls and didn’t need a guarantor. I’m surprised that Bristol uni owned accommodation required a guarantor.

You also can no longer make payments for several months or a year upfront to private landlords since the renter reforms which came in this year. Uni owned accommodation is usually paid in three instalments to match when student loans are paid.

I agree. Because he lives at the other side of the world I don't really know him. We are getting to know him but it's hard work.