1st Year, 3rd term, no content?

[UniProblem]

DC at Uni - 1st year and 3rd term. No work, no lectures etc have been scheduled for term 3 so DC has nothing to do. DC is autistic and struggled with this lack of structure in term 3 so has now come home. (Uni know DC is autistic as adjustments needed to be made and support put in place - not always successful or effective, but that's another story!)

My issue is though is that DC and us as parents have nothing to show for the fees paid for this term.

Is this other people's experiences, that term 3 is effectively 'no work'?

Speculating but 3 x £2200 gives a weekly rent of about £160/week over a 42-week contract, which sounds very plausible.

42-week contracts seem pretty common for first year halls, although I imagine it also varies depending on university!

42 weeks from the 24 September 2022 (a typical move in day) is the end of June 2023. Hence the payment of £2200 for the last two months.

Accommodation let for 38 week will often have a higher weekly rate to offset the the shorter let.

That makes more sense. So perhaps op is only paying for May and June, not Term 3 (for us that would mean beginning of September finish) but payment was spread across 3 payment points rather than monthly.

Is his accommodation end date in June or August/September? So 39/42 or 50/52 week?

It does still sound like he finished pretty early in the academic year if he was done by Easter, but most kids are home now for the summer so that would be the norm. I doubt there will be much going on over the summer. It's the long vac.

Some London halls are 50 weeks. DD had one for LCF. Makes looking for work easier.

My DD had 1-2 weeks of revision lectures - she’s had exams until end of May. Now prep for field trip but largely two weeks off and then a week field trip moving out in late June. Siblings were similar - projects and/or exams in May then field trips in June or finish end of May.

DD did a STEM degree and always had lectures/seminars/labs after Easter. Exams were until the the middle of June.

Even in her third year she had another module to complete after Easter.

I can't comment about her first year because it was during the first lockdown, so she had online lectures until May, then an exam. We got a refund for her halls for the third term.

I think it is ridiculous to charge for a third term's accommodation if all studying, exams, assignments etc finish at Easter.

I would be more concerned that your DS has missed something that he should be doing though.

Halls vary. Some charge for term time contracts of about 30 weeks - often in catered halls and students have to vacate in holidays. Self catered might have contracts if 40,44,48 weeks and private accommodation be 52 weeks.

In all cases you might not have teaching the full time or ever beyond 30 weeks. However it is still officially term time, so I’d thought contracts required you to be around the university and available…not many many miles away.

Why do they charge? They need the money.

People forget and think the course fee of £9250 is extortionate…and that is. Lot of money but bearing in mind it’s barely risen since it was I trocued at the £9k level,it’s worth about £6k to unis in real terms and doesn’t cover the costs. Student accommodation is also expensive to run.

So often it doesn’t seem good value and parents who are funding or have an eye on their kids paying back loans want value, but often don’t realise what it actually costs to provide and supply education, as in the past most haven’t had to for schooling pay. It means £9250 for the tuition seems extortionate….but consider if you’d get a private school education for anything close to that amount - no.

I think an issue is that students and sometimes parents don’t realise what uni teaching will be like, in terms of hours, self study etc etc. Many people feel it’s not good value. It is an awful lot to pay for for an experience, so it really has to be worth it in terms of the impact it can have on life.

On a similar note, private schools charge for the summer term in Yr11 and Yr13 even though student have gone on study leave well before half term. They describe the fee as yearly spread over 3 instalments rather than covering the precise term you’re in….the autumn term actually covers almost half of the year of teaching.

Things like marking of papers and admin are also a necessary service that is going on and being paid for. People think in terms of very frontiline stuff, but there’s much more to what is being provided and is needed to keep the show on the road.