How will I afford it

[Me1987]

My 16 year old daughter has started looking at Universities that accept the course she is doing, the local University now no longer accepts the course she is on.

She plans on doing nursing so has started looking further away, the plan I had in my head was she would stay at home which would save money but now she can't, how do people realistically afford it. I currently earn 33,000 and partner earns about 6. We rarely have spare money left at the end of the month and I am worried we will struggle to support her.

If she was doing a different course I would expect her to get a part time job alongside but as its nursing I don't think that will be possible. I'm aware that she will get some student finance and loans but is that seriously enough to cover living costs? She's currently looking at Manchester or Leeds if that makes any difference.
Thanks

Living at home is by far the cheapest option. Other than that, she can get the tuition loan, full maintenance loan and probably a bursary too (the uni will have details). She should also expect to get a part time job to earn extra money to cover her expenses. Many students don’t get parental support through uni and that’s how they manage.

She could take a year off and work. You are correct that the maintenance loan will not cover her outgoing. Depending on the number of hours her course is she could also get a part time job

Student Finance covers a fees and maintenance loan. NHS may offer a bursary. She could still work in vacations.

If you look at the student loan calculator it will tell you how much student loan she will get. If your total household income is less than £40k I would think she would get close to maximum tbh - which is deffo enough to live on esp if you are a bit careful about accommodation (avoiding en suite and catered for example)

I think she'll get a bursary of £5k per year. Have you sat down with her and worked out how much loan she'll be entitled to?

Is she able to work and save over the holidays?

I had a part time job whilst doing nurse training at a hospital, you can also get bank contracts to top up hours in the holidays. It was doable and I wasn't exhausted by it. Being younger with no kids helped as I had lots of free time.

Just did a quick calculation based on your income mentioned (no idea if you have dependent children as that helps) - she would get about £8k which is not far off the max. With a holiday job earning a decent salary (so say, saving £1-2k over the summer) and yy possible bursaries that should be OK.

yes bank shifts is a really good idea for nursing - good experience as well.

I think you may be over the household income brackets though for additional bursaries for Manchester and Leeds but I'd check yourself. It's usually easy to find, you just need to google the uni name and bursary

She should get around 7900.00 maintenance loan and 5k NHS bursary (I think) doable and she can work in the holidays too.

Thanks all, I feel slightly better about it all now, obviously it could all change depending on if she changes her mind. She has tourettes so maybe she would get some kind of disability element maybe?

What about a nursing apprenticeship?

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund-lsf

Does she get PIP?

She does get PIP

lots of nurses do bank shifts as a health care support worker - good experience, often if unsociable hours decent pay and there is often last minute shifts going so don’t have to commit to something each week etc, can ebb and flow as course demands do

A friends daughter is in her 3rd year of a nursing degree. Holiday’s amount to around seven weeks a year, split between Christmas, Easter and summer. She hasn’t been able to fit in any work due to placements (not always local) which include evening and weekend shifts.
The holidays and Uni hours are very different from the majority of courses.

So her PIP can help her a little and she can apply for DSA, although she won't get money through that but they will be able to put some sort of support in place.

I'd also recommend looking at De Montfort Uni. Their reputation for helping SN students is excellent. Definitely worth asking them what support she would get there.

Is she working now? One of my kids saved over £4K before uni by saving her babysitting money and working in the summer holidays and that was after using money for clothes and some travelling.

The holiday between A'levels finishing and Uni starting is long, it's nearly three months for some. One of my other kids boyfriend who was from a very low income house got a data entry type job through a job agency and was paid £550 a week for the whole summer. Apart from blowing £500 on a games system he used the rest to cover the basics at uni.

Might it be worth looking at a Uni in a cheaper area? One of my kids went to Sheffield and it was noticibly cheaper than some the unis my other kids went to. I think Cardiff is meant to be cheap too.
Places like Keele Uni used to have comparatively cheap Uni halls. It's worth checking out the actual details of different Unis.

I was also surprised just how cheaply some of my kids friends could live at Uni. Being skint at Uni is totally normal. My kids were ok but all had skint housemates and were all doing things like bulk Aldi shopping, bulk cooking and living in freezing housing.

Thanks, Teesside Uni could be an option, cheap accommodation. Also Leeds actually gives an extra £5000 NHS grant and then another £1000 for mental health nursing so that may be good. I feel more reassured now that she will be able to do it. Fingers crossed she doesn't change her mind. I will just try and encourage her to think about getting a job and saving up before.

The NHS training grant will be the same at every university. https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-learning-support-fund-lsf/training-grant. It's not the same as the NHS bursary which new nursing students are not eligible for.

There may be some small university specific bursaries, but they are likely to be targeted at certain groups based on things like household income or home address. As people have mentioned above, if you are worried about costs I would compare accommodation costs as that is the biggest bill for students.

And definitely check out how much loan she will be entitled to.

Has she looked into Nursing apprenticeships?
Usually employed by an NHS trust as a healthcare assistant (band 2 minimum pay of £22383 pa) ) she would be paid for the duration of the course, and the NHS pays the tuition fees.. https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/study-and-training/nhs-apprenticeships

She’ll get about 7.5-8k loan (check for your exact circumstances on the calculator, search student finance England calculator), 5k bursary at least from NHS, some other support from NHS (linked above, the support fund) and then potentially bursaries or scholarships from her uni (these are specific to the uni and she’ll need to research). But at a minimum of about 12.5k per year she’ll be fine, she just needs to budget carefully.

Bear in mind when looking at accom she’ll be on a long course, so needs to make sure her choices offer the appropriate contract length. Also ask universities about where the placement hospitals are and look into the routes she’d likely be taking - if lots of the hospitals are spaced out/more rural, does she realistically need a car, that kind of thing.

She can do bank shifts, and I would suggest a role as a HCA or in a nursing home starting now. Excellent for saving for uni and getting the skills and experience to ace the interview and get your place!

DSA may also pay the difference between self catering and catered if she would have difficulty shopping and cooking for herself.