I am not sure why some are saying leave it to the child. We both work full time and all 5 of our children are just about all through university and we are the opposite of helicopter parents and yet certainly were involved in helping with some of these things.
- Admin,
A) getting tuition fees physically paid, when does this happen. Can I pay myself or does it need to be a loan. Can feed be paid monthly.
Unusually I chose to pay the fees and maintenance so on the UCAS form when my children applied they ticked a box I think saying no student finance. My son and I grappled over that as obviously we did not want to pay a foreign student fee of £15k - the £9250 is the UK student subsidised figure but agreed no finance was the correct box. Their private school said even there it was rare to do that and as said wisely above most people take the loans and plenty never have to pay them back and they are more like a student tax. The repayments are about 9% on earnings over £26k. So for say a newly qualified city lawyer on £100k (which would have been my lawyer daughters and hopefully my 2 law student sons) would be about 9% x £75k - £6750 year and double if your pay went up to £200k which is sometimes does with lawyers. However we are a rare case.
Also as Mr Lewis also says there is no point taking the fees loan but not the maintenance as it is not a normal loan. Whether over 3 year you borrow £50k or £30k it is still 9% "tax" on your over £26k earnings or whatever the current levels are. So unusually for loans your "interest" does not differ depending on size of loan.
Lost of better off parents find their child gets for rent/food about £4k rather than double that for children of the less well off so the parent makes up the difference between minimum and maximum loan. This is the same as for me in the 1980s - parents made up my very very very small minimum maintenance grant up to the "full grant" level. Then and now however parents have no legal obligation to do so.
Can you pay monthly? For the rent in year 2 and 3 in private accommodation - yes it is monthly to the landlord. For halls in year 1 cannot remember - probably once a term? For the fees for the few parents paying direct - I am not sure. I think I just paid it all in term 1 as I had the money and wanted it over with.
B) how do we get accommodation in halls booked, and when. How do we pay, can we pay monthly.
On payment - see above. On booking at Bristol where 3 of mine went it was when they had firmed their first choice I think it was or once the offers were out from the university. I cannot remember. I see the website today says - " Applications for rooms in our postgraduate residences for the 21/22 academic year are now open. Offers will be made on a rolling basis from 21 June. "
Making applications from 21 June I think coincides with when all offers are out and students will have picked their first choice (the one usually where you apply for accommodation) and their back up choice of university.
C) Who gets the correspondence with the Uni, my son or me as the parent
Your son. As I was paying fees and rent etc for my children I had to make sure I actively asked the children what emails had come in and to check things a bit although as they knew they were hugely lucky I was paying they were certainly on the ball in keeping me informed.
- Onboarding
A) Is there any other part of the onboarding process I don’t know about?
As you will know once the results are out in August they then know where they are going if they meet their offer etc or go into clearing. I cannot remember when you hear about rooms but before then as you see above about Bristol, by June you will have applied to halls in the university of first choice. If you don't get first choice you then apply in August for second choice halls. If neither (my older son) then you apply for all once you have a place in clearing for the university.
Once they know where they are going it is worth looking at term dates on that university's website and reminding them to look at their emails. In non covid times we turned up at the allocated halls on the appointed day and I hung around at the back and the student lines up to get papers and a room key and then goes to the room with the parent with all the stuff so lots of carrying boxes up stairs and there may be a talk for students or parents and then I tended to go right home due to lack of time, work and other children. Some parents stay and take the child out to lunch or cry or whatever. These days I expect the drop offs are very staggered and briefer.