Costs of student accommodation

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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!

www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/colleges/do-I-pay-to-live-in-my-college

In theory DD'S College could cost as little as £5,040 p.a. based on £30 daily rate. That corresponds with her bills. They also pay 50% for all her sports costs & kit (she's in uni & college squads). Other colleges pay for books or subsidise other things.

Oxbridge can be cheaper than anywhere else as you don't pay for holiday time in most colleges.

Remember I (ie tax payers) make a gift of that to your child who never has to pay a penny back unless they earn over the threshold if the child takes the student loan. It costs them not a single penny up front and possibly nothing ever!

DD's Oxford costs also come to around £1500 per term, with food on top. She's not easygoing with food, and generally prefers to make her own, which can be cheaper than college food depending on what she wants to eat, though of course what she saves in monetary terms she loses in time. But being able to stay in her college throughout her course will save her masses compared to renting privately in later years.

Not sure if you are still reading this but Oxford varies a lot from college to college.

DS's college charges about £1,500 per term which is for accommodation (ensuite) and money on his food card. He had to empty his room for Christmas and Easter.

DD's college charges £2,200 for exactly the same, but not ensuite.

DD will be living out next year. Her room in a shared house is £580 a month plus bills (obviously for 12 months).

Just checked to see what dd will be paying if she takes her uni place and it’s £7,832.00 for the year £178 per week. That’s more than I pay on rent for my 3 bed house 😬 though I guess that includes electric, water etc?

I'm not sure it's correct that 'teenagers can't get part time jobs anymore', my DS has had part time jobs since he was 13, starting with a paper round, he got a local part time job when he went to Uni (admittedly not Oxbridge) - it was a great job in a football club so he could watch the match and earn money . He's always managed to find something, and during lockdown he set up his own car wash business for a few weeks before finding work in a factory producing PPE supplies. We live in a very ordinary small town, no big employers.

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

The problem is, everyone seems to want ensuite rooms, and they come at a cost.

£800 a month is on the expensive side. There will be cheaper options. The Cambridge College I know inside out averages rooms at about £1,400 a term, and no costs during the vacations when rooms are emptied.

Obviously I didn't go around campuses when DD was applying to universities for 2021 entry, but a few years back when occasionally accompanying DS I was amazed at how picky prospective students were about their accommodation. DS only wanted the cheapest room possible, which he got in the end, but now I understand those blocks have been demolished to make way for more comfortable billets. I suppose all this has to be paid for, but it's very rough on those with limited means, however the shortfall between loan and accommodation is to be made up.

Main reason I wanted ds to get into Oxford was the cheap accommodation. He’s been rejected and will end up in London or Edinburgh or in his bedroom here if he gets rejected across the board
No shortage of jobs where I live for 16yos but MUCH harder than it used to be for under 16s.
He’ll be working while he’s at university and definitely won’t be getting an en-suite.

Oxford is only cheaper if you don’t end up in a college where you have to live out for a year. Then you are stuck paying exorbitant rents for that year. I think Oxford is the second most expensive city for rents in the UK.

Because the terms are so short at Oxford and Cambridge accommodation costs actually work out cheaper than other popular Uni’s also a few other things can be heavily subsidised depending on College and sometimes household income.

But it is hugely competitive and pressurised in year 13. In terms of creating a flawless, impressive PS for early application and revising for admission tests alongside ordinary schoolwork, attending early application offer open days etc etc.

In year one. DS got knocked out prior to interview stage and that was an absolute crushing blow to deal with (recovering from covid and trying to focus on mocks etc).

Lancaster and York was on a par for my DD but chose Lancaster because Yorks accommodation was a lot more money and taking all of her student finance up and then some on top from us. Lancaster was cheaper and ended up with about £700 extra cash a year, so she uses that to fund for books and socials. We just pay for the food/mobile/clothes and if she has any extra, for going out.
Youngest is currently looking and Chester looks good accommodation price wise, Lincoln is very expensive (can only afford two cheapest choices) and same for Reading uni, its pricey.

My son is at Cambridge. There are some very rich students, which he expected. There are an increasing number of students from state schools, as is he. However, what he had not expected is that those from poorer backgrounds literally have money thrown at them. He has a friend who gets full student finance as well as full bursary and he expects to have saved nearly 10,000 over the three years. If you come from a family with two working parents of average income you are the poorest in terms of student income.