Are they many of you that have persuaded your dc to go to local universities and stay living at home

[EleanorReally]

i am sure i heard this was a thing now, due to expense.

I can second the Scotland thing. Living near Glasgow loads of my high school stayed at home. It was quite exotic to go away to uni

I hadn't even considered when people said local they meant nearest, and were thinking of possible commutes of an hour or so. From my house you could reach almost all of either universities sites/colleges within 15 minutes on a bike.

University's not universities.

There is no way we can afford the £800 dxyra a month quoted above for "the experience." We just dont have the money.

I hate that her choices will be dictated by what we can support but that will be the case. Husband is even keen to look at non uni routes due to cost but she is so bright I want her to have a degree, evennif it has to be local.

I hope mine will stay local.
I have twins and the double expense means that we may need to look locally.

Fortunately, we have a good choice of universities in the region.

NumberblockNo1 if your DD is entitled to the full maintenance loan it will cover the cost of her accommodation.

I doubt she'd be entitled to the full loan but everyone says it doesnt cover everything.

numberblock a degree apprenticeship might be the compromise you and your DH could agree on. It's a degree, but it's a non uni route to a degree. She would come out with the degree without the debt. It depends what's on offer in the field/subject she's interested in though, as they obviously aren't as plentiful as uni places.

The £800 per month was for two DCs iirc.

It is on the high side. I am paying DS's accommodation so he gets the loan to buy everything else : books, clothes, food, drink. He gets about £1200 loan a term and we pay about £1200 accommodation : so that is about £400 per month , I guess. And that is not the most expensive accommodation by any stretch. Some uni accommodation is extortion

That's calculated on topping up the minimum loan by the way.

Regarding kids with ASD or mental health issues, if your kids hadn't been accepted to a local uni where they could stay at home would uni have been a no go?

Carrie we didn't know my DD had MH issues when she was deciding on a uni. But she wouldn't have been able to go back if she'd been at a further away uni, iyswim. The fact that her uni is just an hour away means I can go and help if she needs me to, whereas if she was further away I wouldn't be able to do that. She would have had to transfer to a closer uni. As it is, if her mental health deteriorates again and she needs more time out, she won't get a degree. She's used up the "spare" year of funding from the student loan (you can have funding for the length of your degree plus one year), and we don't have the money to fund an extra year ourselves. We've got our fingers crossed that she stays on an even keel this time.

I imagine if my DC go to university and are able they will stay at home. We are close to the city centre so I don't imagine they'd be desperate to leave, providing they get the grades as it's v competitive here especially for current goals

Just to explain the £400 each per month for my kids, another £800. DD2s rent in halls was £195 per week alone for their cheapest type of room. She is in private accommodation this year but it’s still a lot. She also has to pay for stuff like related theatre trips and exhibitions and travel costs to her placement. She also has to buy materials.

DD1 is a vet student and has to finance travel and accommodation at most placements - e.g. air BnB or hostel if there is nothing on site. This alone comes to over £1000 a year. She is also fairly limited in her ability to do paid work although she does do casual work when she is able to.

Lots from my son's London private school went to London Universitities. Most spent first year in hall, but then most drifted back to living at home in their second, third or fouth years.

No evidence at all that those living at home missed out on social life. A lot of actvities in London Universities are based on campus and accessible to all. It seems to be a MN myth based on some idealised view of "the student experience".

We barely saw our son when he lived at home. He studied in the library, saw his friends and played sport. It was absolutely fine and saved him a lot of money.

Re Glasgow and the radius, I think it's larger than 20 miles. I can't remember which was which, but between Glasgow and Strathclyde, one had a distance limit and the other a time of travel limit. We are in Stirling and I think DS wouldn't have automatically qualified for guaranteed accommodation for either from what I remember. He could have applied and might have been successful, but the guaranteed accommodation for 1st year wouldn't have applied. The year before last, Stirling University had to temporarily use accommodation in Glasgow as they were over subscribed. I think at the time students were complaining that their student accommodation was further from the uni than their house!

I wanted my DDs to go away to uni to get some independence. In fact, I said if they decided to stay in our home town I'd kick them out of the house anyway!

I was happy with DC going to university relatively close to home but definitely assumed they would live in hall.I think you miss out if you are having to factor a significant commute into a student day,and also my DC are quite home oriented - I wanted them to gain the skills and life experience of living away,even if not very far away and easily able to contact home via WhatsApp in the case of emergency ( how long can I keep this for? Help,I'm locked out! etc etc ...)

I went to uni in London,commuted from home for 1 year and lived away for the other two and that worked OK as well - but mine was a very full on course so my friends and I bonded over our fully timetabled days of study!)

There is no way we can afford the £800 dxyra a month quoted above for "the experience." We just dont have the money.

Exactly, same here. Also last time I looked all my friends and family who stayed at home managed pretty well to still become “independent” and get decent jobs, and enjoyed decent social lives at uni as well.

@CarrieErbag for my DS with ASD, he’s not ready at nearly 20 to live away from home. He goes to the local college to do his HND and the course options were limited. He will go to the local university to do a top up degree course in all probability.

But ASD is a wide spectrum, some DC can cope away from home and there is support at university to help them do this.

Mine is too young yet but I will be encouraging him to consider Universities abroad rather than just those in Ireland/UK. I've been saving up since he was born to help cover the costs.

I think London is a bit different, though. The halls can be far from the university and have students from different universities in them. Then living out can mean a long commute with students living many miles from each other. With a campus university in a smaller place, there’s a different sort of student lifestyle with everyone living close to each other even after moving out.

I never 'persuaded' mine. DD moves an our and a half away but it was decided for her as it's the only uni in Scotland that does her course.

DS will be staying at home because there is no need for him to move out, he can do his course locally.

Thanks Millicent and @MsAwesomeDragon
My dd is probably undiagnosed ASD , massive anxiety issues.
Are some unis known for being more ASD friendly?
I should probably do a different thread rather than detracting from OP's theme (sorry). We home ed, so the whole uni thing is a minefield and obviously we will have no school help.

We intend to retire to DC1’s university city (90 minutes away by train) and were fortunate enough to be able to buy a house outright for DC1 and three (paying) friends to live in between now and then.

The house covers its costs and we pay for DC’s tuition and living costs. No worthwhile grants or student loans in this country but fees are much lower. If we’d been paying rent, too, we might have encouraged DC to commute!