How much does it cost, in your experience?

[DistrictCommissioner]

As long as a piece of string I suspect, but roughly how much does it cost to have a child at university, not eligible for any additional funding. I can imagine it varies a great deal by location?

"If, as a an adult, they make this decision,then fine. But I believe that they should take on the financial burden to a degree. Be that by taking loans and/or working through uni etc."

This is a bit harsh when their total qualifying loan is entirely dependant on their parents income - it's expected that higher earning parents part fund their children's university education, to not do so and expect them to manage on the minimum loan will put them into hardship and add extra stress at a time that is already hugely stressful for them.

It's certainly not impossible but it is very hard on the student.

Currently I have two at uni. Neither in London as that’s a different ball park. We pay the rent for the year - they have been between 4,500 and 6,500 and their phone bills. They live off minimum student loan easily (and I think it teaches them to budget) with the occasional money sent if they have a big outgoing. We saved this money before they went and there is about £5k extra, if they don’t fritter it, then they can use it after to travel.
They are lucky, my parents wouldn’t have been able to help like this.
Don’t save up for the actual uni fees though - definitely do student loan.

@ILikeTrains

"If, as a an adult, they make this decision,then fine. But I believe that they should take on the financial burden to a degree. Be that by taking loans and/or working through uni etc."

This is a bit harsh when their total qualifying loan is entirely dependant on their parents income - it's expected that higher earning parents part fund their children's university education, to not do so and expect them to manage on the minimum loan will put them into hardship and add extra stress at a time that is already hugely stressful for them.

It's certainly not impossible but it is very hard on the student.

Perhaps.

But university isn't compulsory, nor is it the only choice young adults have.

@00100001 ok so there are apprenticeships that could lead to a career. Do you know a lot of careers for which a degree isn't necessary? There should be but I am asking if you know of many in 2021?

I think even if they are adult, parents should support them until they finish full time education and are working. We knew Uni costs were there when DC were born so had 18 years to think about it

Off the top of my head, post 18... Apprenticeships/Degree apprenticeships
Higher technical skills courses
1 year funded courses
Traineeships
Supported internships
Join the military
Learn a trade.
start a business...

I'm just saying it's not the only option. And also, university isn't for everyone. And not all 18 yo know what career they want, so is investing 3/4 years as £30+k always the wisest thing to do, when (perhaps) they could travel/work for a few years and THEN go to university of that is the right choice? (Again, going back to them being adults and making informed choices)

People on MN seem blinkered

I take ok board your points which are absolutely valid.

However a LOT of jobs require the skills acquired in obtaining a degree. If they earn max £26K they never have to repay the loan so it's not the student making the investment anyway- it's the tax payer. However if they don't get the maximum loan it is because the powers that ve have determined parents can afford to make up the difference and I feel it's the parents duty to do so. There are hardship funds at universities of parents would struggle as well

University is not for everyone - but it would be such a shame if the reason for not going down the university path is monetary

I totally agree that uni isn’t the only route in life and it certainly isn’t the golden path it’s sometimes portrayed as - having now had a few years experience of it I’m even more jaded by the process.... but if your children do go and they have a lower maintenance loan due to your earnings then you are expected to support them - and to not support them will make it difficult.

If they go to university, then the (current) cost to you, as parents, depends on your income.

(Presuming you are in the UK, and not a Welsh student going to a Welsh University or a Scottish one going to a Scottish University), The fees are £9250, but that doesn't cost parents anything and the student doesn't see it either. Just goes straight to the University.

Then the 'living costs' are set up so it is assumed every student ends up with about £9K. If you are on a low income as a household, all of that comes in the form of the loan. Then there is a sliding scale but not immensely high (think the 'household income' is about £60K ish to only get the minimum loan ??). So all students get about £4.5 and parents are expected to find the other £4.5K.

Which would be do-able for most parents in that income bracket if they only have one at university at a time, and they aren't mortgaged up to the eyeballs or paying off other debts. There are a LOT of families it doesn't work for, but that is the theory.

@BackforGood however these days every parent is aware of the possible costs of sending their child to Uni before the children are born ..... sure life circumstances can change. But the cost certainly shouldn't be something parents are only thinking about when their kids are in sixth form

Doing my sums fir DC1 has underlined to me what a bargain Oxbridge is. I simply do t understand why one sees comments about “I’m not sure we can afford for my child to apply to Oxbridge etc”. London accommodation looks to be significantly more than twice as much as a friend’s child is paying at Oxford. Ouch

@chopc these days every parent is aware of the possible costs of sending their child to Uni before the children are born

How? My older DC were born in the early 2000s and given the whole system was completely different then and we had no idea what our family income would be in 18 years time, how were we supposed to know about potential uni costs?

Yes, we were vaguely aware that there'd be an element of expense if they wanted to go on to higher education, but never anticipated it would be as much as it is (multiples going at the same time, they're going to be entitled to just the minimum maintenance grant). We just thought we'd be able to cover what was needed with the (small amount of) savings we'd accumulated. It was only when they were early teens did we become aware how much the system had changed & what the financial impact would be.

@Africa2go didn't the tuition fees come into force in 2002? The DC going to Uni this year would have been born after

DD gets minimum tuition loan , doesnt cover her rent, she lives off that and we pay her rent which was £550 a month in uni halls for first year, second year was £500 a month in private rented close to uni, she has just found private rented accommodation a bus ride away from uni for third year that is £400 a month.
So if they get minimum maintenance loan then i would say they need an extra £400-500 a month, more if in London.
Could use savings or get a part time job to top them up ( although part time work has been non existent recently but hopefully now shops and restaurants are open that will change! )
I think ultimately they need maximum maintenance loan amount to live on and government expects parents to top up to that if they arent entitled to it due to parental income, its very unfair imo.

[quote chopc]@Africa2go didn't the tuition fees come into force in 2002? The DC going to Uni this year would have been born after [/quote]
I actually think they came in before then, but tuition fees are completely different - there wasn't (and still isn't) an expectation that parents would contribute in any way to tuition fees. Tuition fee loans are paid (in full) by the student loan company to the uni.

Its the maintenance grant that parents have to contribute to - and that system has changed completely over the years. Even if I'd looked at the rules when my DC were born, or even when they started school, it wouldn't have helped as they're so different now (and require much more of a parental contribution now than the rules required then).

Yes, of course I could have been pro-active and thought to save thinking it would be inevitable (we did, just not enough) but never expected the amounts we're now liable for.

We've had to top up rent by about 2k per year (uni up north, no doubt more expensive in london) plus we gave them a food allowance of £50 a week on a monzo card as it was easier to budget. We paid for bus pass £200 a year. In actual fact they probably only spent £25-30 a week on food so had cash leftover to go out. If I went up to visit I'd often take a bag of food to stock up the cupboard as well.

On top of that they got £100 a month off grandparent and worked in the holidays to top up their bank account for clothes/extras.

@Africa2go noted

@Africa2go

Maintenance loans (or grants in my time) were means tested in the 80's long before this years cohort were born. Parents who claim they didn't realise they had to contribute have obviously been living under a rock because it's frequently written about in the press. My own parents over 40 years ago had to submit payslips to my local council so I could get the full maintenance grant, you had to have a household income of £12k or under I think!

You can know about something, but it doesn't mean you have enough money spare to save up for uni.
You may only recently have a decent income so it may have been impossible to save any money when they were young.

@motogogo

I agree that grants were means tested but if you didn't qualify for a grant because your parents' income was too high (or they had largely been abolished - like when I went to uni in the 90s) you could apply for a maintenance loan - and that was all funded by the student loan company (not parents).

I can't pinpoint the time when that changed - but as recently as 2010, everyone was entitled to 75% of the maintenance loan (from the loan company) and only 25% of it was means tested and potentially paid by parents. I think the max loan (outside London) was about £5k at that point, so a potential max liability of about £1250 per child per year. Fast forward to now, and the expected contribution is about £5k per child per year with parental income over £60k ish.

I haven't been living under a rock, just never occurred to me that system could change so much.

Exactly @Budapestdreams

@chopc - we were not in a position to be saving up for university costs for our dc when we were younger. Huge difference between knowing there is something that is would be nice to save for, and actually being able to do so.

The state did not give parents enough time. Eg my daughters' fees were £1k and their brother's £3k. As I want to treat the 10 years younger twins similarly I have also paid their fees which are hugely higher (£9250 and will be £16k+ this year at law school). It was that jump from fees of £1m to £9250 in a fairly short period of time which did not really allow many parents to plan in the way parents in the USA have for decades saved up into a college fund for their children. It did not matter to me as I paid school and university fees always out of income anyway but not fair on lots of people (other than the point you don't have to pay and could take what is often the state's gift of the loan or I should say the gift from other tax payers and indeed that student when they pay tax).

Looks like the loan system is only going to get worse...
amp.theguardian.com/education/2021/may/24/horrific-cuts-in-pipeline-for-english-universities-and-students?__twitter_impression=true

But most parents do not pay tuition fees for uni so inflation made no difference to most. Just the Lib dems politically.

Parents really do know they have to contribute to living expenses. My DH’s parents refused to cough up in the early 70s when they earned too much for the full maintenance award. They preferred a new car, caravan and colour TV.

I used to manage our LA Grants and Awards back in the 80s. Lots of work to establish what parents needed to contribute. It really is not new! We only managed around 8500 cases unlike today where numbers are sky high. However very many parents have always been asked to contribute. It’s only political falsification of the truth that makes parents think university was free for all when it wasn’t.