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!

Dd pays £4900 - that is cheap for halls. Oxford is one of the cheapest universities for first years (though expensive if they live out afterwards, many other universities are the opposite, dd is paying £420 a month next year for a 10 month contract.

If you have more than one DC, do you give them the same amount of money or do you alter it according to their living costs? Just thinking about if one decided to go somewhere more expensive, while the other deliberately chose based on price.

DD is at Newcastle. The cheapest university owned halls are £94 per week (and are rather grim). DD's halls were £134 (now £144) per week for an ensuite room in a flat share of 8 students for a 40 week contract.
They didn't have to clear rooms at the end of christmas and Easter terms.

I agree with you OP. Dc1 is at a big southern uni (not London) and his maintenance loan is what he lives off + we pay his rent. We pay £650 pcm for 11m of the year and he has bills on top. I went to see him recently and I was shocked at the house. His room and bathroom were nice enough but the kitchen was horrible and not enough space for them all to be there at once and when they arrived there was rubbish for the tip in garden, bins full, walls of his room not ideal, blocked drain etc. If parents can't help it would be hard for him to pay for this as 650 equates to >72hr/m working a £9/hr pub or cafe job on top of studying. Dc2 is going to a big Northern uni where cheaper BUT then we'll have to find rent for both plus paying own mortgage.

@ColouringPencils

If you have more than one DC, do you give them the same amount of money or do you alter it according to their living costs? Just thinking about if one decided to go somewhere more expensive, while the other deliberately chose based on price.

We've had this conversation. We would not give the exact same amount but would give them the amount that made their costs the same if that makes sense. But, at the same time, we would expect dc2 to go for the most reasonable accommodation available in their uni as dc1 did. So dc1 has not got an en suite because that was £500 or so more a term. If dc2 only has en suite options that's fair enough but otherwise we expect them to be sensible. But we don't want to restrict uni choice based on cost so wouldn't look at that until the choices have been made (but we are fortunate that, whilst it's not negligible to us and we do have to budget for it, we can afford it and there will only be one year of overlap between them).

[quote ColouringPencils]@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.[/quote]
Not you. Just in general. Both my sons havd friends from better off families where parents don’t support. And on here clear most people don’t. We struggle. And before I get shouted out, both mine have worked since they were 13, staring with paper rounds. One at a southern uni where even full grant not enough but he knew that and worked for a year before going.

We alter according to their living costs. I don’t want them to choose their uni based on cost. Having said that if they went to a London uni they’d be living at home. Anywhere else is up to them. One is at a RG uni in the north. Double room with en-suite is £6200 a year. I pay for that: he lives on the loan. Next year he is only paying £400 a month for his shared house. I’ll pay that but I won’t give him the difference between this year and next year

I have one dd in Swansea, and one in Bath.

They get minimum maintenance loan, so we pay their rent, (one £350pm, one £640pm) they then have the same amount left to spend on food/books/travel etc.

They both took a year out before uni to earn some money for "the other stuff"... clothes/booze/going out money.

We have been saving since Y10 at school when they both expressed a desire to probably continue in education.

£8,600 for 32 weeks catered at Holland Hall, Exeter ... anyone beat that!

I worked from when I was 14, but don't see that being the case around here any more. There aren't supermarket/ corner shop/ waiting jobs for teenagers. I guess too many adults need those jobs? No teenager I know has a job.

Wow @Moominmammacat, I sincerely hope you win!

We will just pay the rent as it is, not make it "fair" as the one in the more expensive town just needs more.

My teenagers had jobs, and they seemed easy to come by. One of mine finished university in the summer but worked for a year beforehand to save money. They did things like babysitting and retail work in a department store. Also did a lot of selling second-hand clothes online and the like.

@ColouringPencils

If you have more than one DC, do you give them the same amount of money or do you alter it according to their living costs? Just thinking about if one decided to go somewhere more expensive, while the other deliberately chose based on price.

I have two and will be giving them the exact same amount. (Which will be topping them up to the full amount of the loan)

Renting is always more expensive than buying. Dd is currently rent8ng a room in London. It’s £540 per month plus bills so equates to £145 per week for 52 weeks.

Ds’s first choice is Leeds where halls start at £149 per week for 43 weeks. His second choice is Salford where halls start at £135 per week. He has already said he will apply for the smallest rooms in order to have more money.

Dd is at Durham . It’s definitely a lot cheaper than London but it’s more expensive than I thought it would be . We live in the north ourselves so I was expecting similar rental prices to our area.
Dd is in catered accommodation and is paying £7477 for 30 weeks. She has to move out during holidays. But that is with food.
Standard (outside London) maintenance loan amount is £9488. So we pay our parental contribution to make it up to that amount ( as per Martin Lewis calculator)
So that leaves her just over 2k for the year when catered accommodation fees have gone out
She worked all through last summer and intends to do the same this summer so had some savings. She’s been fine so far this year ( early days still!) and tells me that food has been great so I don’t think she regrets going catered at all . She is more worried about next year when she has to move out of halls and will be paying aprox £7600 for a full year .. and without food .

Topping up to full maintenance loan regardless of costs for all DC is my view. It’s up to them how they spend that.

We give ours the same amount £1100 a month to cover rent,around £600 and the rest for everything else
Also pay for phones and a few other things we were paying for when they were at school and didn't bother cancelling
I went full time at work to cover it

@ColouringPencils

I worked from when I was 14, but don't see that being the case around here any more. There aren't supermarket/ corner shop/ waiting jobs for teenagers. I guess too many adults need those jobs? No teenager I know has a job.

Maybe it's area dependent but DC and their friends have found it easy to get jobs. Between them they've done paper rounds, Saturday jobs in co op etc, admin jobs in offices, labouring for builders (lots of jobs available since Brexit and pays well), waitressing, FA refereeing (needs initial outlay for the course but then pays really well for a teenager and plenty of work available). To be fair none of them were advertised and they had to ask in lots of places but they have all found stuff. The 3 on gap years now - 2 are waitressing, 1 of those is doing care work as well, the third is just doing care work. Public transport is good here though which probably helps.

It’s VERY area dependent. Dd applied for hundreds of jobs in two different areas, then when she moved to a third area got hired straight away.

Public transport is dreadful where I am but excellent in London where she is now.

just that I was shocked by the costs and how much it has increased since I was a student.

..... yes, but you have to put that in context with all inflation over the last 30 odd years. I bought my first flat for £37 000. I started teaching on a salary of about £8K ..... etc etc etc
Plus, overwhelmingly, student accommodation is a LOT posher now than when we were at University, and a lot more is included. There are also a lot of students who claim to "need" an en-suite, and even a gym membership

IF you start to read the HE boards on here, and look at WIWIKAU (What I Wish I Knew About University) on Facebook, you will begin to get more of a picture.
Oxford and Cambridge are regularly quoted as being amongst the cheapest, as the terms are so short and there are so many subsidies due to gifts from rich alumni. Though they have rules about not being allowed to work in term time, their holidays are that much longer they can easily make back that money with holiday jobs.

@Thelastbattle sorry might not have been clear by teenagers I meant kids still at school. Eg, when I was doing GCSEs everyone had some sort of Saturday job. That isn't the case here at all now. I would assume (hope!) the jobs are still there for for 18+.

[quote ColouringPencils]@Thelastbattle sorry might not have been clear by teenagers I meant kids still at school. Eg, when I was doing GCSEs everyone had some sort of Saturday job. That isn't the case here at all now. I would assume (hope!) the jobs are still there for for 18+.[/quote]
Don’t assume I’m afraid. Dd was unable to find a job aged 18 until she moved because everywhere wanted total flexibility but on a 12 hour contract.

[quote ColouringPencils]@Thelastbattle sorry might not have been clear by teenagers I meant kids still at school. Eg, when I was doing GCSEs everyone had some sort of Saturday job. That isn't the case here at all now. I would assume (hope!) the jobs are still there for for 18+.[/quote]
Mine all worked during 6th form.

I do think U16 jobs are much more difficult to find now than there were decades ago, but I don't think it is too difficult to find work once over 16. Quite a lot of places like employing 16 yrs olds as they can pay them even less than 18 yr olds (who , in turn, are paid less than U21 yr olds).

Yes that's true @Kite22, although I graduated 20 years ago and have lived in a cheap area ever since. Had DD two years after graduation, still paying off my own student loan. I definitely see that with all the luxurious-looking accommodation for students in our city. Someone must be making a fortune. We lived in some crap houses and were happy!