Parents funding all uni fees

[ImagoLuna]

Can those of you who have funded/intend to fund your DCs through uni, so they don't need to take out loans, tell me if you have any regrets in this decision? What's the range of total annual costs (cheapest to most expensive) for students - tuition fees/accommodation and maintenance for different unis? How did you manage this financially?

I have friends telling me I'm stupid even to think about this and that DCs should take out student loans which they'll 'never have to pay back' - but given our DCs presumably aspire to earnings above the limit to pay back loans, surely many of them will be paying back loans for many years to come?

I'd rather my DCs leave uni debt free but this will have a significant impact on my own life and my future finances too. A price worth paying - or an unnecessary burden?

Moominmammacat, I feel for you. Luckily DS was never a spender and DD learnt a lot during her gap year when she had to earn and save in order to travel. She is also very aware how lucky she is that she will finish without loans, something she would not mention to her friends and a reason why she would not want more than the SL amount. (Her University has a number of very affluent students, who live a different life.)

I liked the approach of another mother, less certain about her son's willingness to budget. They paid for the first year, but subsequent years' funding was conditional on satisfactory performance in first year exams. I don't know whether this helped but the boy really knuckled down and engaged in his course. So no problem funding the second year. Presumably also there is a logic in that a good degree performance will influence future earnings.

I felt patronised scaryteacher (living up to your name). I was posting briefly on an anonymous online forum, not writing a press article or academic paper, both of which I do for a living.

There really was no need to correct me, because I didn't imply with my usage that I meant all 3 branches of the Armed Forces. I was speaking about the one I know best, in which friends of mine have and still do serve.

DD's degree will hopefully lead her to her chosen profession, but depending on which role she goes into, her earnings could be anywhere from £24k upwards. She is not money driven at the moment so there is every chance she will go for the more enjoyable and interesting lower paid roles. She says she feels she can do the most good in these roles. Only time will tell whether she is on the best financial route at the moment.

I offered to pay my DD's student loan debt. She told me she'd rather have the money as a house deposit. Aside from the issue that the loans might never get paid off, she'd be paying more interest on that money on a mortgage than she would on student loan debt, and if she's ever out of work for a while, she'd stop paying back the student loan debt, whereas she'd still have to pay a mortgage.

Unless you're wealthy enough that they'll never need a mortgage, I wouldn't pay off the fees. Makes much more sense to pour the money into a mortgage in future instead.

I have nearly £15k of student loans I will almost certainly never pay back as I am now a SAHM and worked in youth work and teaching before that so relatively low paid. They very kindly cancel some of the loan in 2030 and the rest when I retire, am permanently disabled or die. Im not worried about it.

Im more annoyed that I worked bloody hard through uni to keep my debt low, missing out on a lot of things in the process. I could have just spent the extra money, potentially got a better class of degree and certainly had more fun, I would have paid back the same regardless.

Please dont pass your worry about loans onto your kids unless you decide to pay their way. These loans are very common now. Unless they are going to get on a graduate management scheme or work in STEM or finance they wont pay it all back. They could end up paying back more than they borrowed but it genuinely does work more like a graduate tax for most people.

And yes, absolutely agree a house deposit is more helpful.

“We’re the poor relation”.

I wouldn’t consider yourself poor if you actually have just about enough money to consider paying off 18K per child per year. That’s my mother’s salary after tax for one year alone!

Don’t worry if you can’t afford to pay off your children’s debts, I’m in 3rd year and I’ve never come across a single uni student who had their tuition payed for them. But then again, I don’t really have any rich friends.