Living on max maintenance grant at Bristol University?

[Poundshilling]

DS hopes to start at Bristol university in the autumn and we're trying to get our heads round the finances. It's going to be tight.

Reading previous threads on Mumsnet, some parents pay for the accommodation and the student receives the minimum maintenance loan as living costs (£4289 for 2020/21.)

DH feels that the total annual outlay shouldn't exceed £9203 (maximum maintenance loan) so that would leave 9203-4289=£4914 for accommodation. Looking at the costs of halls in Bristol, DS would have to get the cheapest rooms to come in on budget. But he can't guarantee to get the cheapest rooms, in which case, he'd have less than the minimum maintenance grant to live on.

Can anyone with a student at Bristol (or a uni in a comparable city) tell me:

1. Does your student manage on less than the minimum maintenance grant for living expenses?
2. Is it realistic to expect to do it all for £9203? Uni website talks about £9000-£14,500!
3. Are there many student jobs that will still exist in these days of C-19?

Thanks.

(Pass, £150 a week si what my twins have after accommodation and they (in my view) are better off than quite a few others so that should be fine even in London)

@xenia I’ve been really worried so it’s nice to hear that your twins are doing well on that amount.
Do they shop and cook together? I can imagine it’s cheaper to do that so I hope she manages to make a good friend in halls that she can do that with. I’ve been talking to her about batch cooking and she’s bored of me now. Lol

Actually my twins were in separate halls in year 1 (catered) and in separate houses the other 2 years so any cooking was with the people in their houses. For them going out (and the drink once out) has always been the most expensive thing, not really food. One is vegan and has been for about 5 years. It is just very hard to generalise as so many students differ, have different lives and budgets but they all seem to get on fine with lots of different people - which is part of the university experience which I hope can be preserved during covid 19 too.

@xenia £150pw each or between them? I know London isn’t cheap but that seems a lot if it’s for one

It’s what mine had 10 years ago. It depends what you expect them to buy with the money. What are their hobbies and how do they wish to live and what can you afford. Every parent is different and some run cars. Most don’t but some parents happily pay for a car at university. So always ask what the money is actually paying for.

Some students run cars I meant. Every parent differs in what they can afford and indeed what they are prepared to pay for.

The twins in Bristol get £150 a week each and in holidays too. However lots of people have less and people of all income levels seem to get on fine and that is one of the good things about university - you get to know all kinds of different people. We took £100 a week their sister got 13 years before then and applied inflation and roughly it seems fair (for this family of 5 children anyway).

They share a car for which I pay.

I think the max loan outside London is 9203. Their rent is this year 3 each about £6240 so that would leave £2963 if they had loans div 52 is £56 a week for example. Or if a parent paid the rent and let them keep the £9203 that is £176 a week over 52 weeks which is more than mine have. For children of parents who are better off the minimum maintenance loan out of London is about £4289. Difference between 9203 and 4289 is £4914 - the sum the better off don't get as it were divided by 52 is £94.5 a week. So for those parents paying the rent entirely from their own funds and their child takes the tuition fees and get the minimum maintenance loan of £4289 that is £82 or so a week off which to live. Sorry, rambling rough figures..... £82 is fine. £150 is generous and some have a lot more or much less.

Mine gets £75 a week for everything. Food, bills, entertainment. She also works in holidays to run her car all year. Not London though.

One thing to look out for is differing term lengths. Oxbridge are 8 weeks, others average 10. However LSE altered their teaching schedule so that you get 12:12:6. So 24 weeks of solid teaching and from then on it is revision and exams. And UG exams tend to be before the PG exams.

Similarly DD is on a five year rather than a six year medicine degree, so after the first year the autumn term starts early and then they sneak extra placements/activities into the summer vacation. So though she has just finished her exams, she is about to start a six week "placement". Then will have a "summer school" connected to a year's intercalation. Obviously now they are both wfh, but normally they would not be.

Effectively after their first year DD started late August and DS started at the beginning of September and both carried on to Christmas.

That said both managed fine on around £75 per week. I think DD budgets to spend about £30pw on food, so has plenty over for social and bigger ticket items, including the odd conference. Their phones were on our broadband package so they only paid for additional data, and we funded DD's car and insurance, and she is able to reclaim petrol costs to placements. In London DS was able to walk most places. The only problem this year is that one of DDs flatmates keeps the flat at tropical temperatures, but learning often has a price.

Others obviously have more. But that is always true. DDs friends tend to have similar budgets so adapt their social lives accordingly.

Yes, ,mine was saying when he was home how much cheaper it was as no going out, no restaurants, no petrol, no sandwiches for lunch, snack foods, ready meals, no social events (whereas for me as I don't get things like takeaways, go out, rarely at a restaurant, don't use coffee bars lockdown is zero difference other than a house full of adult children and paying for the twins' food).