Costs of student accommodation

[ColouringPencils]

Just idly looking at university websites after GCSE-age DD was encouraged to look at Oxbridge in latest parent's eve. It's about £800 a month for accommodation in Oxford. I was so shocked! We live in the North and that is more than I've ever paid to rent a whole flat or for my current mortgage on a house. How do students afford this - is it usually parents paying rather than coming out of their student loan? Is there an easy way to compare living costs of universities or do you have to go through them one by one? I understand there are bursaries/ scholarships if your parental income is below a certain threshold, but with 2 parents working full-time we would not be eligible for that.

Thanks!

Oxford has short terms and the accommodation contract will often be term time only. 3 terms of two months each.
£4800 for accommodation for the year is less expensive than a lot of other universities.

When I was at uni I think first year I was paying about 550 a month, second year 600 a month and third year 400 but no bills included.

I paid this myself - had a part time job and used it to top up my loan. I only got the minimum amount of loan as well which was about 3,300 for the year.

In terms of how much parents need to contribute, Martin Lewis has an explanation and calculator:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loan-parental-contribution-tool/

Yes I suppose I was thinking of it as 12 months a year. Do they move all there stuff out in between terms then?

Thanks that Martin Lewis calculator is helpful.

I can't remember what I paid in my first year at uni, but second and third year was about £50 a week (Northern city, in the mid-range area for students)

In terms of the student themselves contributing: a part time job may not be feasible in term time at Oxbridge; DS (Cambridge) studies at least 50 hours a week, and his college doesn't allow students to do paid work during term.
They can work in the university holidays though.
Some take a year out after A-levels to earn and save.

@ColouringPencils

Yes I suppose I was thinking of it as 12 months a year. Do they move all there stuff out in between terms then?

DS has to empty his room at the end of every term. The college lets it out to conference delegates and tourists.

Oh god that is expensive. In my first year it was 35 a week including bill but in a rough area.

Ds is at Durham which is a flat rate for self catered or catered with some additional costs for en-suite or reduced costs for sharing.

His first year accommodation is £6335 for single room, en-suite with a 3/4 bed self catered sharing a kitchen with 7 others. He comes home for holidays so his lecture/tutorials are over 30 weeks.

Financing it, the maximum student maintenance loan is £9488 (away from home, outside London) for those whose household income is below £25k. Sadly Ds is in the "anything over" £62,286 household income so his maintenance loan is £4422. Our "expected" parental contribution to top him up to match the maximum loan would be £5066 per year. We have savings to cover this as both Dh and I went to uni so knew that there would be short fall.

As you can see his £4422 loan doesn't cover his rent never mind food.

However, the vast majority of students do not have huge piles of money from parents no matter what you read on MN , so they get jobs, take gap years, live at home whilst studying or choose a university with much cheaper accommodation. That is why student bank accounts have overdrafts.

Info on finance here www.savethestudent.org/student-finance/maintenance-loans.html

And no, Ds is in a block where they don't have to empty their stuff out, thank goodness. I did, it was awful.

In general, London universities have the most expensive accommodation (for obvious reasons). There are various lists available online comparing accommodation costs.

www.savethestudent.org/accommodation/universities-students-pay-the-most-rent.html

I applied to Oxford back in the day, and remember part-time jobs being very much frowned upon. I did have a part-time job at my uni, but I did an arts degree with only about 6 hours of teaching time. I lived with people doing STEM subjects and I am not sure they would have had much time for working as well as their packed timetable (and having a social life, which I do think is a key part of uni life)

@Pegasussnail

Oh god that is expensive. In my first year it was 35 a week including bill but in a rough area.

Me too but that was 30 years ago £35 for 1st year, £40 for 2nd year and then en-suite on campus for 3rd year at £43 with an en-suite. I can only wish it costs this now.

Dd is in her 2nd year and her student house room rent (single room, shared bathroom) is more than it would be to rent my whole house if I rented it (3 bed terrace).

Her halls were worse last year.

@Ironoaks

Oxford has short terms and the accommodation contract will often be term time only. 3 terms of two months each. £4800 for accommodation for the year is less expensive than a lot of other universities.

For 5 years at Oxford I was only in college accommodation so only paid for it when I used it. In addition Oxford (it does vary by college) has more money to support students than any other university and has recently increased the number of places by 10% specifically for students from deprived backgrounds

@OnTheBenchOfDoom that's really helpful. Durham is near us so may be more attractive to DD. I understand Durham students are discouraged from living at home, is that right? TBH, I would feel quite sad if she had to live at home unless it was her choice, that was such a massive part of the university experience for me.

I have one at Oxford and one in Manchester. The Oxford rent is so much cheaper as its only term time. We are low income and daughter gets a very good bursary from the college which helps her significantly. We do empty room every term which is a bit frustrating though sometimes she is able to put stuff in storage room in college. Working in term time is impossible. Terms are short and work load is high. On the flip side they can work in the holidays to top up their finances. Don't rule it out. If they offer you a place financial help is available

@ColouringPencils we said if Ds went to a university at home we would pay for first year accommodation for friend making etc. Then live at home for second and third year if he wanted.

My nephew lived at home and community 20-minutes for uni.

Always unclear to me why parents don’t budget to make up the loan. Your son or daughter does not get the full loan for a reason! And I say that as someone who doesn’t find it easy to make it up, only just on the cut off.
That said costs vary hugely by uni. If you’re looking at Oxbridge a college that provides accommodation for all 3 years is much cheaper than one that doesn’t.

Warwick is a top uni for most subjects and is significantly cheaper than most.

Yeah, lots to think about! Interesting - and kind of scary! - that Oxford works out cheaper than Manchester. Maybe I will look at some cheaper northern cities. Obviously the decision will have to be DD's but it feels like there are a few things to weigh-up. Also have a younger DS who would potentially cross over with her, if she did a course that was more than 3 years or took a gap year.

Dc1 is at Cambridge. Accommodation costs are significantly cheaper than those of friends' children at other unis but it does vary college to college. At DC's college they had a choice of accommodation so pay different amounts for (eg) en suite etc. I think we will be a lot more shocked at the price if dc2 goes elsewhere.
Dc1 could not get a term time job - with 50+ hours work a week for uni it would just not be possible. They work hard through the long summer break though.

@Youonlyhaveonelife not sure if you are exclaiming at me, but I didn't say I don't have any savings, just that I was shocked by the costs and how much it has increased since I was a student.

Btw we give exactly what dc1 would get if they were entitled to the full loan - and that easily covers the costs of accommodation and food (which is very heavily subsidised). The extras (formals, balls, going out, sports stuff) get funded by the summer job.