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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

How much cash support for DS/DD at Uni??

53 replies

happilyconfused · 27/05/2006 23:51

A finance person came into school to talking about financial planning and I was amazed at the costs he discussed. Without a car, any travel allowance, holidays or tuition fees he estimated that a student would need £7500 a year to live on. That was for a thirty week year and assumed that the rest would be free board and logdings etc from the parents. £7,500 covered food, logding, books, insurance, PAYG phone and a night out per week.

Parents would have to pay for the laptop, tv, fancy phone, transport etc

No wonder these kids are in so much debt! The housing ladder will not be for them as they will not be able to afford the deposit on their own. Will you support you child at Uni or will you let them sink into debt?

OP posts:

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 28/05/2006 00:51

I'll help them if they help themselves. I would like them to throw themselves into uni during term time but in the hols they can get jobs - at least 2 - just like I did (old folks home in the day, pub in the evenings).

ScummyMummy · 28/05/2006 01:14

Spect I might toss them a penny or two if they're very good. Don't know if they'll be uni boys tho. D is still very set on becoming a Mexican wrestler. Not sure that there are many Mexican wrestling BSc courses about...

brimfull · 28/05/2006 01:20

I would support as much as I could but would expect dd/ds to help by getting a job during the holidays.We've been saving for years for dd who is now 14.

threebob · 28/05/2006 03:14

Wow - my parents paid my 30 pounds a week rent in halls and gave me about the same again for everything else.

I know it was 12 years ago, but that's a third!

No TV, I got a typewriter for my 18th birthday, I travelled on the buses after 9.30 (starting a campaign for Uni lectures to begin after 10 to allow us to benefit from this).

SueW · 28/05/2006 09:04

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

tigermoth · 28/05/2006 09:12

I suppose it's in the financial planners' interest to scare you into thinking you'll need thousands and thousands of pounds to support your child at uni.

I do expect to offer some support - would even consider using our home as collateral if absolutely necessary. But £7,500 a year for 3 or more years is not what I had in mind!

As a student, I always worked in my holidays and also during term time. Unless the timetable demands are different now, I would expect my son to work during the term as well as in the holidays.

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 28/05/2006 10:16

If you consider that it's a sum that doesn't take into account their own earnings, I think it's possibly not that ludicrous. If they have to rent privately they'll have to pay rent for the whole year regardless of whether they're there or not - that's £3k gone and leaves you something like £60 (doing this in my head) a week for bills, food, clothes and beer. I'm sure you could do it for less, but it's not ludicrous.

zippitippitoes · 28/05/2006 10:22

ds has booked accommodation for term time only for the coming year and it is £4,958 for his room and full board

Saggarmakersbottomknocker · 28/05/2006 11:40

I would love to support ds at uni but the reality is that we can't afford to. Plus I'm likely to have two there at the same time. We should be just about able to finance his accomodation (but I was hoping for a little less that the figure you quoted zippi ). Everything else will be down to him.......and it certainly makes you think whether going to uni will be worthwhile in the long term.

Lilymaid · 28/05/2006 17:48

DS paid £3705 this year for hall room at university(not ensuite as this could have been nearly £1k more). He has his student loan and I give him £50 per week plus the difference between his loan and the hall fees. I have also paid his tuition fees. Students starting next year can defer their (considerably higher) tuition fee payments until graduation and then pay back as they pay back their student loans. On top of that there was the lap top (18th Birthday Present) property insurance, books, domestic stuff needed for hall such as duvet covers etc and the odd supermarket shop etc etc.
It isn't cheap but I feel I have to do for him what my parents did for me. He hasn't had a job since last summer holidays and will need to save as much as he can over the coming vacation in order to maintain his lifestyle and pay for the gas in the student hovel he will be sharing next year.

mumeeee · 28/05/2006 22:49

We have paid DD1#s tuition and accomadation fees( has been in halls) this year. All her living costs and stuff she needed for her course she used her student loan and own earnings for.
Next year she will be renting a house with 4 friends. This is all sorted out. The cost of thhis is £250 a month. She has to pay jalf rent in July and August which we have asked her to pay. Then when she starts paying the full rent we have asked her to contribute £50 a month.

BadHair · 28/05/2006 23:18

£7.5k per 30 weeks works out as £13.5k per year, just for living. Some families live on less than that. It's a rather high estimate. Part of the learning experience for post-school students is about managing your money and being financially responsible.

Laptops, TVs, mobiles etc are not necessities, they are lifestyle choices. All universities offer free computer facilities to students, often open late or all night, and to be honest laptops are just too nickable to be a sensible purchase.

I work with students, and I see loads of 19-21 year olds in huge debt because they've gone out and bought flashy phones, laptops, iPods etc at the start of the year, then having nothing left by Christmas. They sit in my office, crying that they can't eat for the rest of the month, then break off to take a call on a state of the art mobile phone that I have no hope of affording. Whilst wearing Diesel jeans and DKNY tops.

Sorry, went off at a tangent, but it does make me mad when I'm also seeing single parent or elderly students who have the same financial struggle but without the luxury items to show for it.

If you want your 18 year olds to stay out of serious debt TEACH THEM HOW TO BUDGET.

BadHair · 28/05/2006 23:20

Before I ranted I meant to add that the Aim Higher website has a good budget calculator on it and some sound financial advice. I would do a link but am too knackered and am off to bed, but it's on the higher education pages.

Tortington · 29/05/2006 00:13

fuck em i mean if hery anre reallyl that serious they would get a fuckin job. tesco.
kwim. its not right at all . but tesco. get a job you spongin siss head bstars

sallystrawberry · 29/05/2006 00:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Daisymae · 29/05/2006 00:57

My mate has three at uni at same time for three years plus schoolkid at home (firstborn plus twins in same year!!)

They all work in hols to contribute to their income but it's so scary for her. Agree re fancy stuff, teach them to be proud of their background and not depend on label shite to get self-esteem.

(I was student from mining background in 80's. taught me a lot about politics!1)

mumeeee · 29/05/2006 11:57

My daughter had an old laptop which she took with her to uni. She has found this to be very useful. Yes she can use the computers at uni but if she is awnts to type up her assignments it is a lot of hassle to go into town ti the building to do this especially if she is doing work at night.
She is not lazy and often does use the uni computers but would have found it very dificult to get all her assignments done if she did not have a laptop. So I would say they are an essential item.

zippitippitoes · 29/05/2006 11:59

I would say a laptop is essential too and most halls now have internet access in every room.

DD1 is at uni comes back for her 4th year in October and she has found a laptop invluable. Ds has one anyway for all his work as he can't really write

mousiemousie · 29/05/2006 12:04

I will contribute financially for dd for as long as I am able to and as long as she needs me to - I expect that will be throughout Uni - if she goes - and probably after that if necessary!

I would also encourage her to have a part time job from as soon as she can as I think this is a good precursor for life in the big wide world!

Twinkie1 · 29/05/2006 12:10

Ifd you pay their child beneift into an special kind of plan (something index linked or something like that DP mentioned it to me once) - can't rememeber what it is called from when they are born it would benerally pay for most of their costs at uni!!

I would pay for them as I think by then we won't have much of a mortgage and maybe I would be the one working just to get them through uni whilst DOP would just carrying on paying the other stuff.

I would expect them to geta job though to support the fun side of things and the things that I wouldn't deem necessary - phones and computers and stuff they could have as birthday/christmas presents!!

SueW · 29/05/2006 12:48

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

roisin · 29/05/2006 13:44

I think the general mindset of students has changed though hasn't it?

When I was a student (87-91) most students were on the same budget: a full grant. (Either paid by LEA or parents, or mixture of both). If you budgeted carefully and lived pretty frugally you could manage on this without getting into debt at all. As a result most people I knew lived (quite happily) as 'impoverished students'. Hardly anyone had a car, we used to go out for a meal once a term!, take-aways were a luxury, and most 'entertainment' was campus-based and focused around our budget. Even televisions were not a must-have accessory! But part-time jobs were quite uncommon, and still somewhat frowned-upon by our university at that time.

Now teenagers seem to expect and demand so much more as the 'bare minimum'. And as anyone from an average/modest background cannot possibly get through without incurring significant debt, there is no motivation not to do so. There no longer seems to be any tradition of scaling down your lifestyle even a bit.

mousiemousie · 29/05/2006 14:24

Roisin I agree with you - it's definitely changed in a wierd way...you have to pay more (fees, maintenance) therefore you expect a more lavish lifestyle too
???

studentmum1 · 29/05/2006 15:21

i'm at uni now, just finished my first year, even though i'm a mum, i'm only 19 (the same age you would expect your kids to go) i have had absolutly no help from my mum or dad with living costs, tuition fees etc. although they are there if i ever needed them financially i haven't relied on them and i think i'm more stable in my life and on my understanding of the value of money because of this. at this age we should be able to stand on our own two feet and learn from life.

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 29/05/2006 15:37

roisin I was an undergradte 89-92 and jobs during term time were definitely frowned upon but I don;t think I knew anyone who didn;t work in the holidays. I got by with some debt - the grant was frozen by then - it was £2k which, if you had to live in private accommodation was about £50 less then the cost of a year's rent plus poll tax. It's not suprising that expectations have changed - that's just what happens - i guess its called growth or progress or development. We all measure our life styles and adjust our expectations according to our peers - not what our parents did beofre us - applies to any stage of life - being a student, being a parent, being a retired grandparent. nothing stands still.

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