Finance decisions for those starting Uni next month?

[papayasareyum]

Daughter is off to Uni in September. We sent off student finance forms ages ago and had confirmation that they had all the info they needed, but we haven’t received information re how much we’ll have to contribute. When will we find out how much maintenance loan she’s entitled to?

Tbh when DS1 applied three years ago, he already knew that he was only entitled to the minimum maintenance on top of his fees and I can't remember when he got his official notification, but have you tried putting your details in here to get some idea?

www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

They are working on about workong 28 days just now. Mine are both waiting for letters, it's just on that. They can see the amount on line though,.

Thanks. I got her to log into her student finance account. Maintenance loan of £4,900 given and her accommodation for first year halls is 6.9k, so we have 2k to pay, plus we’ll have to pay for her food etc, £50 a week I was thinking.

bloody costly this Uni malarkey

That's a fair old amount.
My DS paid slightly less two years ago for catered accommodation

YEah, it’s not even a London Uni and the catered halls were 8.5k!

That works out as £200 per week for her halls! How can the university justify charging that much?

I’ve just had a look at the accommodation page for her uni and the halls she wants and it’s £166 per week and 6.9 k (rounding up here) but still expensive. I looked around all their other halls and most have similar costs

It really has changed drastically since the days I was at Uni in the late 90's where I paid £50 a week. I had a random look today at two uni's at opposite ends of the country (Hull and Brighton) and the average they charge for self-catered rooms per week are £130 and £140, respectively.

I'm starting to understand why Martin Lewis advises parents to focus on saving for uni living costs for their kids, instead of tuition fees.