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?

True - but so much media talk is about the loans and the amount of student debt a graduate has. Many parents assume the system is such that maintenance loans now cover all that a young person needs to live at uni. Plus the thresholds have changed very little. The threshold for getting full maintenance loans, is still £25000, and hasn't changed since 2008. Even those getting the full maintenance loan are finding themselves priced out of universities with very expensive accommodation.

Things were a hell of a lot cheaper though and the lifestyle expectations are just different. Most student rooms are now en suite!

I went in 1992 and had a full grant. There were no tuition fees of course in those days.

Unfair to say you should have prepared when your income was previously below the threshold. OP, all the unis have their accommodation costs published on their websites. Some are more reasonable. But when she is shortlisting, at open days, ask students about the accommodation application process (sometimes you have to list up to 10 options, and won't necessarily get your own choices, or even your preference of catered/non catered or ensuite/shared bathroom, or budget.) But there's usually some swaps possible later because not everyone takes up their place. And watch out for the end of year one, where they sometimes need to pay first bit of rent for second year house long before they get their second year loan. It can be helpful to join the wiwikau Facebook group for info and tips. It's all doable, good luck to her.

Question - if you’re a divorced single parent and kids with you most of the time (but dad does see them) do they look at both parents income or just the main resident parent?

I’ve just googled. Student grant in the 90s was 1,750. Labour then scrapped it. I also had a scholarship of £1,000. My parents then topped me up and I did bar work in the holidays. There were no tuition fees. Completely different to the way things are today.

plus a double vodka and coke was £1.20 in the student bar.

They get all the student loans available and then they get o/t work too. Very douable

The maintenance loan essentially covers the rental property.

Is she applicable for a grant because of your income?

It would be best she got a job there but it would certainly help her integrate into a new city.

I was chatting to a recent graduate the other day and she mentioned her university offered a lot of bursaries and scholarships. The fact that your daughter will be the first in your family to go to university jumps out at me as she specifically mentioned her university has scholarships available for that. It would be worth exploring that possibility.

My Ds is at Uni now. He is autistic so he gets DSA funding for some tech (software and printer) and for a mentor offering weekly term time sessions. He has lived in halls for 1st year and will remain in halls for the duration. He got a bursary from a local charity for his first year of £1k. He gets a room with ensuite which is pricer but has received a subsidy from the uni that takes rent down to standard room cost as he cannot share a bathroom. He lives very simply at uni, costs are almost exclusively food and rent and subs for a couple of societies. He only travels on campus on foot so no fares. He does maths so not many text books needed.

We have higher joint income so v little state loan support, so far we have paid 2 terms rent he paid last and we get shopping when we visit.

Rent has amounted to about £4k outlay from us this year. DS is home now. We have a 17 yo daughter and she hopes to go to uni. Also autism/ ADHD so we will be very tight when we have 2 at uni. We have a 14 yo as well so a lean few years ahead!

You have DCs at University I assume ?

That's good that you could save £300 per month. I put £20 in since she was little. That's what we could afford

£20 per month

Clearly a poster who doesn’t understand the student loan process.

My DD2 is having a gap year to earn money. She is actually considering making it a gap 2 years. She has a uni place and the uni is happy for her to defer for a year,

DD1 earnt quite a lot of money while still at school and saved every penny. She also gets a £2k bursary every year. She agot a job in the first year at uni and was then furloughed - luckily because she would not have had time to work. She is doing a STEM subject at a top uni and she has to work like mad.

You can actually. Tell her to look into data entry jobs. They often (but not always) take place on industrial estates and so there might be a small train/bus journey and/or walk to get to it but it’s what I did as a student and I enjoyed it well enough. Literally just inputting information from forms. I know times have moved on a bit in the past 15 years but I am sure similar things must still exist.

This. Manchester University has bursaries for students like your DC.

It's based on the household income of their main home, so your income but if you live with a partner their income will reduce the amount they can get

I totally financed my whole university experience with student finance and part time jobs. I found a job in hospitality so was able to work full time over the holidays (more hours available in hospitality over the holidays) and this would give me a big top up so could keep my head above water. Uni holidays are long - one month for Christmas, one month for Easter, three months for summer. That’s almost half a year.

I didn’t buy textbooks (they’re all online now), barely bought clothes and those I did buy were second hand, would pre-drink really cheap alcohol at home and at parties before going out and would only buy one or two drinks when out, walked everywhere etc.

I’m working class and no one in my family had ever been to uni so it wasn’t even considered to save for me or to help me out. I figured it out myself.

It’s lovely if you are able to help your children but they can also help themselves and should be open to working part time in addition to uni.

But I bet £20 per month will be worth a lot when she’s 18. I didn’t start until she was 12.

Mine has a child trust fund that’s paying out £14k but she’s going to start a ‘deposit’ fund with that.

OP sorry if I’ve missed it, but does your child have a child trust fund? Even if you’ve not added to it, I think the average it pays out is something like £800, worth having.

Resident parent.

Like students with non-wealthy parents in times before, she’ll have to get a job.
I worked about 20 hours a week on about £5 an hour and made that.
Minimum wage is much higher now so she’d have to do fewer hours.

Either that or she goes to a uni she can commute to from your home so she doesn’t have to pay rent and bills.

i didn’t get anything from parents towards uni. So instead I took a gap year to work and save up money to pay for my own accommodation. My mum didn’t charge me any rent or bills in the meantime.

The number of university students getting a part time job is going up. Many will need to do that.

Uni is so expensive, OP. I'm not surprised you're shocked if you don't have a lot of prior experience.

Our DS has just finished his first year. His accommodation for the first year was £140 a week, or about £5000 in total,

His second year accommodation is a shared private house which is £500 per month.

Our DS's maintenance loan is about £4,500 which doesn't cover the rent, we cover the shortfall, plus £150 per month food & extras.

You will work it out but it is tough when you have a limited budget.

@Taylorscat Oxbridge do say students can’t have jobs during term time, but they also have the most generous student support programs of any other universities in the UK. They give huge amounts of bursary money away to their students each year, including travel grants for the summer.

The not being able to have a job is because they want to give their students freedom to study, not an example of elitism. Please be wary of blanket statements like that: it will put people off applying because they don’t have the correct information.