So, how the hell do you afford uni for your kids?

[F0XCUB88]

Just been looking at prices for accommodation, £200 per week!

So looked at Money Saving Expert to see how much we need to contribute on top of loans. It says we need to save £358 per month.

We earn £50,000 between us, mortgage payment just went up by £££ and now can't actually get to the end of the month so how do we save £358?

Do we just say no she can't go? What do other people do?

I know it's a first world problem but she's really bright. Neither of us went to uni and finding it all a bit confusing. I just can't see that everyone else can afford it?

University isn't compulsory you know
Nor is it the only option at 18.

I went to uni 10 years ago. My mums salary was £40k and my dads £45k so I didn’t qualify for any of the free grants at the time.

I just got maximum tuition loan and maximum living cost loan, a student overdraft of £1k and a job. I went to uni in London for 4 years :)
obvs still have a loan now but paying it back.

parents don’t have to pay for their kids full university costs?

She is frugal and not into clothes etc. so maybe we might be able to afford this!

Hey Op have a look at this calculator, based on your household income on 50k, she would get 6000 maintenance loan, fees are paid for. She just needs to pick cheaper accom under this mark, which is very possible. Then you need to think how much will she need per week, £30/40? Start putting a little away now, does she have a child trust fund ? Not sure when these finished…. She will need to work the summer before uni….
or live at home? Commute to uni… very doable.

Or she needs to look at a degree apprenticeships

Ds is going in September. We will get minimum maintenance loan so will need to top him up to the maximum which will be about £500ish a month I think. The letter from student finance now sets out what parents need to top up so that their child has what those on full loans (is from lower income families) will have.

I think lots of us who effectively had a free ride through university can find it a bit of a surprise. You hear about student loans and assume they can borrow what they need.

The other factor is that there is little scope for accommodation choice at many universities. You simply get put where you get put even if you’ve expressed a preference.

For us it will be ok but I can see how for some it would simply be impossible. I think your options are:

1 - she defers for a year and works. This should give her a good pot to use (and you time to save)
2 - she goes to your local uni and lives at home. I think this will be increasingly common and in many countries such as Australia it is the norm.
3 - she goes as planned but she works every single holiday. This might be tricky since short term jobs are often in hospitality.

personslly I don’t think it’s as simple as saying “she’ll have to work whilst there”. Some universities don’t allow it because it interferes with their studies but also it depends where you are. If you’re in London yes you’ll find a job in hospitality. If you’re at a campus uni which is more isolated and not in the middle of a city say UEA or Lancaster for example then you will find that far more difficult and it will definitely affect the student experience.

in your shoes I’d defer for a year.

She takes a gap year, she works and saves hard, then once there she gets a job 2 shifts a week. I worked all through uni, every summer and also took a placement year where I was paid, I moved back home for the placement year and commuted so I saved enough to stop my job around Nov that year so I could focus properly on final year. I come from a poor background, my parents just couldn't afford to send me money, I had to earn it.

She could always pick a uni near home, live in halls the 1st year to make friends and then move back home the rest, my brother and sister did this to afford it.

We currently have 2 at uni. One work as a waiter. Weekends and some evenings last year he worked for tacobells weekends.
The other is in Wales where everything is cheaper so she has managed to scrape by year 1 with student loan and what savings she had.

The main issue is the summer set up for next year where they need guarantors and often deposit money.

With oldest dd we paid her food the first year (she worked Sundays in a supermarket) and topped up here and there year 2 and 3
With dd2 only one who went to London and covid hit. We supported a lot less due to covid she ended up at home most of year 1 year 2 she did ok but her mental heath took a hit year 3 and we paid her rent for 6 months.

It's tough no doubt about it. We have 3 more years of this before our 4th is done (though youngest 3 all want to do a masters ) but you do muddle through. Dd2 worked for a nanny agency in year 2. That was likely her best job. She tried other things but they didn't go so well .

30-40 a week to live on is completely and utterly unrealistic. She would be able to eat, just and nothing else. What about travel, socialising, books, phone etc. She will have zero student experience and would be far better off living at home and going to a local uni snd not saddling herself with another £18k of debt for a miserable time.

Morning.

Your DD may also want to look at E degree apprenticeship schemes where they get paid to study.

There aren't many, and they may not be in targets subjects but worth a look.

OP I’ve seen you’re getting upset about this, I’m sorry you feel this way!

as a PP has said, there’s a varying estimate of how much a student needs to live off, and you know your DD, it sounds like she won’t want for much esp if she doesn’t drink etc.

I went to uni and I stayed at home. I worked 2 part time jobs at the time. Moving away would have been lovely but staying home and only asking me to pay minimal board was my mum and dads contribution to my uni experience. They didn’t have any money to help me and as an adult with my own DC now I absolutely do not resent them for that.

DH parents private schooled their own kids (not DH as he was fostered and didn’t want to go to private school away from his mates). They have paid rent for theirs throughout uni (again not DH as he didn’t want it) DH also had a part time job to fund drinks etc at uni. Quite honestly their kids are less self sufficient now than we are and as adults quite entitled about a lot of things! so those giving their kids £250+ a month aren’t necessarily helping them longer term.

have a look at local unis- she could take the first year living at home and save that maintenance loan in the bank, then move out afterwards with people she has met on her course

Accommodation is £8000. We give allowance of £4000 for 10 months and she works the other two. Doesn't drink so this meets her needs (just). Also have to fund a car as she is a medical student and there is no other practical transport when on placements over an hour away. Car and fuel costs £2000 with fuel. Total is £140000. She gets £4500 loan so basically we pay £9500. I don't know how some parents do it although I understand some get higher level loans based on parental income

If your household income was £85k now, you’d only qualify for the minimum student loan which wouldn’t even pay for the accommodation in many student areas. Things must have been different ten years ago if you were able to take out the maximum loan.

To those saying that the accommodation is only 40 weeks-that’s true for the first year in halls, but most subsequent years in private student houses is for the whole year.

Reality is that if you’re a low income family it’s fine because you get full loan and possibly also eligible for bursaries at some universities. If you’re a high income family it’s probably less than you’ve been paying in school fees. It’s those in the middle who get caught out and don’t realise.

We’ve moved to an American model of saving for years for college fees but nobody got the memo!

It’s tough. We have paid rent for all 3 DC - oldest two did an extra year - in London and youngest three years in Birmingham. We were paying an average of 700 per month. It’s eye watering. Even with that they had to work as basic maintenance loan is peanuts. So we paid around 70 k - as well as the odd bailout. You are just above the threshold in terms of income for extra maintenance loans - it’s currently 45 k per household. I do think it’s worthwhile though. Perhaps a gap year to earn money and then jobs is the answer.

Move to Scotland - we have free tuition fees (but you have to have lived in Scotland for I think 5 years to qualify)
Pick a university close to home and travel in every day
Get a summer job then p/t job
That's the plan for our DD, although we do have money set aside.

Other options are a degree apprenticeship (called graduate apprenticeship in Scotland) although options are limited.
There is also a year in industry placement as a gap year to earn some money.
Open university - can work whilst you study.

I agree with this! My DC are there now and get the minimum loan-we have other children (also at university) which isn’t taken into account with your finances, so are trying to support them. DS says all the richer people there have their parents paying the accommodation fees outright (cheaper than school fees) and the student is then given the minimum £4200 maintenance loan to live off for food/beers. The lower income families get the £9000 maximum loan and their parents don’t need to give them anything.

It’s ones in between that have to top up the £4200 with a thousand or two for rent each year PLUS give them money each month for bills/food etc that struggle,

Look at courses in the Netherlands/Denmark - in English, great level and minimal fees.

The current system.was announced in about 2010 I think. Prior to that, even in the days before student loans, there was a minimum grant. It was £285 in 1978 I think. Supporting children through university is not new.

Short term jobs are not necessarily just in hospitality or retail. If she can work in the holidays signing up with a temp agency for office work can be good - I did data entry work for a while which does not involve talking to anyone. Lots of temp office work with spreadsheets as well.

If she is doing computer science she might be able to get paid internships over the summer as well that are work in her field.

It might not be the worst thing in the world to have her defer and get a job for a year to build up her social skills. She'll have a better time at uni if she's got used to meeting and interacting with strangers. And it will help for her future career. Social skills are required in IT jobs too.

Things that could help:
Choose a Uni with lower accommodation costs
Dd works and saves for a year after school
Choose a sandwich course with one year of paid work in the middle

I went to uni (admittedly a while ago now) and my parents were in very low income jobs. One thing my mum did was pick up a few things each week with her weekly shopping like toiletries or cleaning products so I had that stocked up to take with me and didn't need to spend my money on those things that end up costing lots of money on a weekly shop. Admittedly my mum went a bit mental and I ended up with enough shower gel for about a year after I graduated (!) but this was a massive help when I was at uni.

You definitely need to give some thought to the course and the university if affordability is an issue. My eldest DSS went to Aberystwyth university, the accomodation costs were super cheap and he was actually able to save money at uni. The middle one costs are a bit higher at Plymouth but is able to work on the course as lifeguard so has only needed at 100pm. The youngest DSS goes to uni in Sept, Bristol, it's the school of acting so no halls and it's a very full on course so he will struggle to work in term time. He will cost us at least 500/600 pm.

First I just wanna say it is lovely you want to help your daughter financially.

But sadly, most students have part time jobs for this exact reasons. I was in uni 2013-2019 (trained in a medical field). My parents are high earners so I got £3k to live off, but my parents didn't help at all financially.

I managed to do my undergrad and post grad with a £3k student loan and working part time. It was rough ngl, but it has made me VERY self sufficient and I'm bloody great at a budget now. If your daughter is sensible she will be able to do it.

I know the cost of living is insane now compared to 10 years ago, but she will be fine. If she can stay at home that will help financially. You also don't have to go into private rented places after 1st year, you can absolutely stay in student halls if that is the cheaper option (it was for me so that's what I did)

This frustrates the hell out of me. I was the first of my friend group to have a child. I realised this issue when she was 12 and started saving £300 per month. I did warn my friends but they’ve never taken notice and say ‘we’ll cross that bridge later.’

Mine is going in September and has a fund put by. I’m saving for my younger daughter and £300 isn’t going to cut it, due to the COL crisis.