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?

They don't have to go to university. I honestly think that going to university was a massive waste of time. And it's a terrible way to live in poverty for three years.

I went to uni. I lived in total poverty for three years. Even working part time, I had barely enough money to eat, my mam also was in poverty at the time as she tried to pay for some of my accomodation. I remember her crying about the accomodation fees, and that she herself didn't have enough money to eat some weeks .

Universities are money making institutions. They care about profit more than education.

My cousin didn't go to university. She is now a senior manager in a multi national company. She started at the bottom , worked her way up and then the company paid for some qualifications for her along the way. She has a better job than I do. And she didn't have to live in utter poverty like I did for three years. She got to go out and earn money straight after school.

If I had my time again I wouldn't do uni

My son got a part time job as IT support at his uni, would your daughter like something similar? There are loads of part time jobs around at the moment so she might find something that suits her.

Sorry I haven’t had time to read all the answers, apologies if this has been mentioned before, but some unis/locations are way cheaper than others. For example, I have twins starting uni this September. One will be going to Bangor uni…the accommodation is one of the cheapest -the lowest one for shared bathroom is approx £90 per week. They have a scholarship exam she thought she’d have a go at, and was granted £3000! All the societies are free and the 2nd/3rd year accommodation is plentiful and cheap.

Some unis support local students (I know Plymouth does this).

There’s also their child trust fund.
Work-wise, could she do something in the holidays like dog-walking, babysitting, gardening etc if she wouldn’t like hospitality work?

I second the apprenticeship route. My DD did the traditional uni degree and then started at one of the big 4 accounting firms as a graduate trainee. No complaints, she has done very well there and now holds a senior role - but 2 of her close colleagues entered at 18 as apprentices and also work at her high level. The only difference is they were earning from age 18 and don't have a huge student loan to pay off.

An ex of the other DD wasn't academic at all so started an IT apprenticeship at age 18. IT is constantly evolving and this gave him a massive advantage over uni IT grads - he was implementing technology changes as they happened and learning about them from the development stage whereas the uni courses were often 18 months to 2 years out of date.

DS GF is about to graduate with a biomedical sciences degree and is looking like she will get a first.

Her parents income meant she was entitled to a loan of around 6k, they did not top up her income. She worked a min of 12 hours a week and was very careful with money.

Overall though these stats are going to change with the amount of graduates now being churned out a graduate is supposed to earn at least 250k more over their lifetime. Now these stats are a few years old I used to be an admissions officer at one of those institutions beloved by MN a Russell group University. There are just not enough graduate level jobs for the amount of graduates. People bang on about the experience but often these are people are like me who went in the 1990’s or at least a decade ago and it was very different then. Not the education, nor the laughs but the actual possibility of a graduate job.

Our own DS is close to finishing year 1 of a degree apprenticeship with a guaranteed job as long as he passes. No debt and already on a salary of 25k per annum.

Obviously very different times when I was studying but I worked FT and did a PT degree so it took some years but was an excellent start to life. The resilience it instilled My parents could not have helped me even if they wanted to.

A degree ultimately can be an excellent start in life but for some it will never be more than just a time in their lives, an experience that will never give them a well paying job.

If your daughter wants to work with computers I would look into alternative routes into the career, a degree is not mandatory and can date very quickly in tech anyway. As others have said apprenticeships or apprenticeship degrees, some employers like the civil service have their own schemes.

Typically, undergrad accommodation contracts are for 39 weeks of the year. It’s unusual that you’d pay for the whole year as they just simply aren’t there.

I graduated in 2019. My experience was that very few families do support their young adult children through university, at least not fully. Everyone had jobs in Uni, saved up by working evenings, weekends and school holidays whilst in sixth form or college. Some parent would send money for food but most people just muddle through. Almost everyone is in the same boat so it’s not like your children would be the odd ones out.

You've got to be honest with them about what you can afford, what they need to do now to help to make their uni lives more comfortable. I got the minimum student loan available for all 3 years so I do know how hard it is. My parents had two of us in uni at the same time as I took a gap year and I have other siblings so they sent me the odd £20 here and there but nothing substantial and no savings as their income had always previously been low, until literally the year before I went to uni.

Only small thing to say is how much, if at all, your DD would be able to work will depend on what sort of course your DD wants to study. Not all courses are compatible with regular work and some areas it is incredibly hard to find work. I have one friend who’s daughter cannot find work and my DD is finding it ver my difficult and stressful as her course has a practical element to it and this means she misses parts due to work then has issues at uni. However she cannot afford not to work. It is a challenge for more technical/practical or placement based courses.

If they want to go to uni they have to prove it by working for it. There is no reason why sixth formers can’t work holidays and one day at the weekend from age 16. The summers after GCSEs and A levels are especially long. I did grow up in a touristy area though so am lucky there was lots of seasonal work through the summer (and got a shop job over Christmas/Easter holidays).
Working whilst at uni is also common. There are alternative to bar work - think tutoring for example. I used to write maths questions for an education company.

Sorry I've not read all of the thread but a couple of points...
A friend's dd had a job in a supermarket at home and they transferred her zero hours contract to the branch nearest to the uni so she carried on working throughout her time at uni and continued to get her employee's discount for food etc bought there. So maybe she could try and get a job at your local supermarket?
Also - I think there are some people on these threads who exaggerate the costs of student life. We are fortunate in being able to top up our DC's loan relatively easily but have now got 2 at uni so are having to be more cautious. Eldest DC says that, even with the increase in cost of living which is very noticeable, it's very easy to live on £40-50 a week and that includes being able to make occasional big purchases like going to end of term balls etc.
Even if your dd starts drinking, students don't seem to drink when they're out any more - they drink supermarket drinks at home and then water when they're out (not a scientific study but know a lot of students!).
My parents did not support me at uni to the extent other parents did. I was always the poorest. It was sometimes hard but I learned to say no to things I couldn't afford and I don't resent them at all - it was just the way it was.
There are bursaries available (even in my day there were and I got a few once I knew they existed) and it's worth checking them out. Also it's worth checking costs of living in different universities. From memory a few years ago Southampton and Bristol were very expensive compared to, for example, Coventry, or Cumbria (Edge Hill uni). Liverpool was surprisingly expensive; Newcastle and Sheffield were not so much. Things might have changed now but there will be differences and it's worth factoring therm in to the decision making process.

I went to uni 20 years ago but I got nothing towards it. My DF was a single parent and retired early, partly due to wanting to, partly to avoid more fees at uni. As I had no parental income my costs were reduced (not sure if this happens now but it was means tested then. I lived in the cheapest room onsite the first year - not in halls, in a little village with shared facilities, no internet, no meals etc. The other 2 years I had shared houses. Bought food at the cheapest supermarket, lived on jacket potatoes and rice. Worked all through the summer and part time all year in my third year. Got a hardship grant when randomly advertised (tell them to keep a look out for anything going). Used my £1500 0% overdraft.

Does anyone stop to think : are universities operating ethically?

They make young people get into severe debt.

My friend works as an administration officer for a Uni, and she has told me that she was very disappointed in some of their practices. That is all about making money for the Uni. That making money is all they care about , and they are not really checked on their money making practices. That some of these practices are pretty unethical

I'm on my second child going to uni and he will get like our first the bare minimum. And we are definitely not well off. So he has a part time job at McDonald's at the moment where he puts half his pay into it this will cover the additional he will need for accomodation. The other bit is his money to do what he likes with We will then fill his cupboards with food and send him food money.
My daughter did this and strangely although she got the least of all her friends she's was the only one of her friends that didn't get into debt with there overdraft. I think it actually does then good to realise early life isn't free!

Hi. We are in this situation now. My dd is off to uni soon and we had assumed the loans covered accommodation and a basic living expense. She will get a loan that covers living in halls (only just) and we are going to have to pay her money each month for food etc.
There appears to be only basic information for parents out there - I thought we’d done our homework. We also thought that the loan was paid termly not annually (ie £6k a term not £6k a year). DH and I never went to uni so sadly our knowledge was non existent! Fees are going to be via loan so that’s something. She also never wanted to go to uni (was completely adamant) so that threw a spanner in the works too!
Our dd will get a job to help and I will work more hours so that will help.
I don’t know how ‘normal’ people do it.
However, I am also very excited for her to be starting the next chapter of their life and we will just try and get along as best we can.

I agree it makes sense to study close to home if she can (can do some degree courses at further education colleges if that helps). If she works in holidays etc and saves then she could move into shared accommodation in her final year if she wants to.

Universities make a loss on home students if you want to see it that way. The fees don't cover what the system costs. What kind of unethical practices do you mean?

A lot of my friends worked for insurance companies after hours inputting data. That was pre Internet, so the world is obviously vastly different now, but there must be modern equivalents of this sort of job.

We started putting money away when the DCs were born. It was tough as we weren't earning masses but it's enabled us to support them by covering their uni accommodation costs.
They get a small student loan for food/extras and if they want more money for fun stuff then they work during the holidays to fund that.

This. My 3 went through uni and I didn't need to give them anything, they had maximum loans and bursaries.
Can't imagine how families cope with having to pay so much.

Eldest son worked for Tesco during his first degree. He isn't ND but plenty were. They could work night shifts ( quieter then),in the back area dealing with deliveries ,shelf stacking ,doing customer online order picking. No need to deal with customers if that's too much.

I think it's something parents need to save for way in advance if their income is low. I didn't know anyone who worked during uni and I would worry that it would take up too much of my child's time that she could use for studying, societies and socialising.

A summer internship to boost the CV is ok.

Remember your DD should think about the possible career at the end of it. I would prioritise a vocational degree such as law or medicine above a more amorphous arts degree.

Actually, I would only do a vocational degree if that's what you really want to do. It's a myth that this is the best way into graduate employment.

80% of graduate jobs don't specify a degree subject. The classification and skills developed are much more important.

OP.... computer science is a perfectly fine degree course. And with regards part time work, lots of universities employ students in a range of roles so there might be something suitable. Investigate the job shop or jobs for students team which is usual part of the careers and employability service.

Haven't read the thread but as a single mum with two children this is what we did. Discussed upfront with both and each had a gap year and earned and saved. This also helped me save more (and spread them out so I didn't have two there at the same time). In the end, with Covid, DS earned for two years before starting. They work in longer holidays.
Was v clear, other things being equal, about preference for cheaper northern cities. DS chose Bristol instead, which is eyewateringly expensive. He has started an online business to help out. I have got a second job this year, not just for the university costs, but it is helping majorly there and to help me feel I have a bit of a cushion.
Other things to think about: on the cost side, the Open University is half the cost of other universities, well respected, has excellent support for students with disabilities, and of course no extra accommodation costs.
Plan ahead for the deposits, guaranteeing student accommodation, etc too. Good luck. Lots of ways to do this but is stressful in anticipation, and we have learned together.

Haven’t read every post but join Facebook group What I wish I knew about university

you need up to date advice, it’s lovely that people whose kids went to university at some point want to help but the cost of living crisis has had a big impact there are a number of areas where the full £9.6k the kid should have doesn’t even cover rent it’s important that your both aware of the current situation

plus the way student debt is being dealt with in terms of interest is completely changing so you both need to be aware of the changes

university can still happen just people like us have to be way more financially savvy than ever before