Realistic cost of living at university

[leftitabitlate22]

I just wondered how much realistically a student needs per week/term to live comfortably (not in luxury!) at university.

DD not likely to be able to have a term time job alongside the degree but will be able to work in holidays.

She won't be eligible for full loans so we'll be topping up.

Have you read much about student accommodation recently @TizerorFizz ? This year, students in Manchester had to be accommodated in Blackpool. Students in York were offered student accommodation in Hull. Bristol doesn't have room for 25% of students.

This isn't a case of students being offered cheap rooms and not wanting them. It's students not having any choice of room, or city, at all.

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/26/uk-student-housing-reaching-crisis-point-as-bad-as-1970s-charity-warns

There are also rich students, many international, who will pay £12k a year for the rooms you are talking about, but they are a different market

sorry btw if my reply seemed a bit pointed. I didn't mean it to read that way

@ArcticSkewer
I am we aware Dc at some universities were offered rooms elsewhere. I don’t see what that has got to do with anything we have discussed here. I would suggest Dc didn’t take them. My Dc would never have done. £12,000 pa is only the market in London, by and large. Many universities have en suite for cheaper than that. However the basic accommodation is usually £5-6k or even less. It’s not in another city miles from the university.

My point was, that when budgeting, look at all the options and choose what is realistically affordable for student and parents. Spending every £ from parents/loan on accommodation and then having money worries isn’t sensible. If money comes from another source, or parents have ££££ then of course it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to discuss all options snd budget sensibly.

Ah, so what I am saying is those cheap rooms aren't there to choose for many students - obviously everyone wants them and there's only so many to go round. Then you get offered the more expensive ones and it's that or nothing.
There's no choice in the market for students - they aren't sat there refusing to take anything that isn't an en-suite. That's all there is on offer.
Your post seemed to suggest that students were driving the demand for ensuite rooms. They simply have no choice in what rooms they get, particularly if they are late getting offers or go through clearing.
Last year was particularly bad and that's not the boom birth years yet

Every uni runs their system differently. One of mine was 'first come first served' except medics don't get their offers til April - everyone else got theirs in January. Another ran it like a lottery - you put down 5 options then get none of them. Sigh.

When the alternative is 'just don't go to uni then' you can see how a lot would just pay for the ensuite.

It's not a horde of spoilt kids demanding ensuite rooms. Funnily enough those were the ones left over for my medic son. Guess he could have chosen not to be a medic instead. Silly him. Mind you, the room was quite nice!

My advice is for my some at Uni outside London and in the north, the private purpose built student accommodation was a much better standard and cheaper than the Uni offering. However, price increase for next year of £1000 come through when we rebooked for next year 4 weeks ago. So in top of his loan, parental support (he needs a car as doing a medical degree) is £10k.

London creative
Halls £11k self catered
Weekly budget £150
Has to pay for materials which I budgeted at a further £100 a month
Majority of students have more than this as mainly from wealthy overseas families.

Agreed - accommodation costs for students have been allowed to get out of hand both University and private sector.