Uni in London - £?

[Mummyinggnome]

Hi,
How much do you envisage your child needing per week to live in London?
Assuming halls / or not?
Many thanks,

Some Unis have their own halls, eg Goldsmiths which I think is the cheapest at about £130 uncatered, but a lot of the London Unis share halls (intercollegiate halls) which seem more expensive, £180 to £240 per week uncatered.

I'm expecting to pay £140 -ish per week for halls, £50 for food, £20 for an Oyster card,so call that about £10k per annum, and ds will have to pay for his own beer from PT earnings, and he can put uni books on my Amazon account.

I believe that you can get larger loans for London Unis to reflect the higher halls charges.

Blimey, uni in London is expensive isn't it?
Thanks - v helpful.

I'd say £££££££.

UCL catered halls cost £179pw. Uncatered with ensuite are more. DS1 has applied for loan and maintenance part is £4900, this is higher than out of London but still does not cover accomodation costs. We will have to pay for Halls and he will live off maintenance loan for everything else.

Lazymum, that's what I'm thinking as well.

I think we'll pay for ds to have ensuite, as some of the so called flats in the London Unis have 23 people sharing two bathrooms - I wouldn't fancy that and nor would ds.

£240 per week uncatered.

That is what DD is paying per month.

She looked at London. A current student tried to convince her that it was do-able: you juggle it by living somewhere relatively far out from the centre, away from your college and mates cheap funded by loads of opportunities for relatively well-paid P/T work.
So, you can either go to London and use all your free time earning money to pay exhorbitant rent/travel or you can go somewhere sensible. DD's living costs are quite cheap, everything is in walking distance and she has enough spare time to actually enjoy student life study. She does the odd bit of term-time P/T but does not have to rely on it to make the budget work.
The choice is: do you join the rat race now or after you graduate?

London living costs are so high for students that they cant really enjoy going out in the way I did when a student. The university simply hasn't got enough accommodation (Unite is a rip off) and the students are competing with bankers for rental accommodation so there isn't the incentive for landlords to give them anything other than grotty. I remember going to the theatre, opera, concerts, ballet when a student but this is all out of the question now- the student standby prices are exorbitant. Travel and food are exorbitant. It isnt safe coming back from a late night out. Part time jobs are in competition with the rest of the arriving world and population. The students who manage all have v wealthy parents. I feel quite disillusioned for my DS. Rent £500 pm for a 12 month contract (v cheap for London) plus utilities plus internet plus phone plus travel plus food plus books. Min 12000 without tuition fees or holiday money.

12K sounds about right. If we pay his accomodation and he lives off maintenance loan the total is about 11,750!

London is incredibly expensive for students, and it's not as though the university opportunities there are any better (on average) than they are anywhere else. Unless your offspring wants to do a course that is only offered in London, then I'd encourage them to apply to equally prestigious universities outside the capital.

What I see about London rents is shocking - I pay £92pw inc. bills and a sink in my room for halls, self catered. Next year I will be paying £320pm exc. bills for a room in a very nice house. A bus pass is £185 for the whole academic year - none of this £20pw on an Oyster Card nonsense, and £20-25pw on food.

Honestly, your offspring are likely to have a better student experience outside London - simply because they will be able to afford to eat.

boomting you have a point unles of course parents are filthy rich. The avg student cannot afford to live a reasonable life in London especially as the student discounted tickets to the opera, theatre, concerts etc of yore have disappeared.

We've now told ds we're not prepared to pay for him going to Uni in London after all.

thats sad but inevitable

Oh, I dunno. I loathe London with a passion, so I don't see it as a sacrifice! He'll be fine in one of the other cities.

It's up to him isn't it, MC1, if he really wanted to go to London he would make it happen despite lack of parental funding. It's his call.
I think that there is something else to factor in: London is a huge place so it 'swallows' the University. Other places (eg Bangor) are the opposite: the University 'swallows' the City. You want a nice balance between Town and Gown.

Is this list of average costs across the UK any help?

TBH I thought Exeter halls costs were outrageous but it's a shame if a course has to be turned down because living costs are so high.

Some London University colleges are world class. Unless a London student's family lives in central London, s/he would be used to commuting and other stresses than come with London. Many 11-year olds are used to, even choose, 1 hour commutes for school each way. People who move to London jobs adapt to those stresses and costs. None of it is insurmountable. I've seen some very naice young men discussing earnestly, inventively and genteely how to minimize costs to satisfy their nutritional needs, when out trying to teach next DC leaving home survival skills. They didn't look at all stressed about it.

What seems outrageous to middle-aged adults, who have adjusted their lives to their liking, may be a huge adventure to young people. Especially if they're studying exactly what they love where they want to. As long as DC is going into it with open eyes, about the living standards and costs, it really is their call. We parents can only choose whether to ease the way a little. However, if it puts him off, it is less competition for the applicants world-wide who are happy to take up the place. Hope it all turns out for the best, mumble.

We're paying for the vast majority of it. Of course ds could go to London if he was desperate but there are loads of good unis outside London which offer him the same course.

Plus he's in the Territorial Army and it's a lot easier for him to do his TA work outside London.

Anyway, he was fine with us saying no London, so it's not an issue.

We live in North London (North Islington) and my daughter is about to graduate from UEA in Norwich. Having grown up in this area, gone to secondary school at Parliament Hill School and so forth, she was used to the big city yet she has enjoyed UEA and Norwich enormously. And she has noticed that EVERYTHING is cheaper.

My DS is at UCL.

He lives on about £30 per week after rent and regular bills.

London can actually be quite cheap in that you may be able to walk everywhere and there are lots of choices of places to eat and be entertained. Sainsbury/Tesco costs the same as anywhere. My DS is a skinflint and he goes home for lunch each day, so doesn't buy food out.

We give him £50 per week, to supplement his loan £5000 and whatever he earned in the summer.

When DS was in halls last year, he paid £78 per week.