Essex university, Colchester - daughter on exchange from nz

[nzeire]

my beautiful daughter is going to Essex for one semester starting September!

any insights, tips? North towers accomodation? Is it ok? Is it friendly, fun?

what’s a reasonable Weekly allowance For her, food, fun? Her travel and weekends away are in her

we are just so excited, any tips appreciated!

The uni is not in the centre of Colchester. It’s in its own park. It is one of the new “plate glass” unis built in the 60s. Therefore nothing is old.

I don’t know the halls but most students will be friendly, and she will meet some on the course. My DD did 2 semesters abroad back in the day and hopefully Essex will give their exchange students info on travel and what they can go and see., plus tips about making the most of their time at the uni.

This isn’t a city university and Colchester is fairly provincial. I would assume many students would like to visit London and this will cost some money. It’s inevitable.

Therefore, look at train times and costs via the “Trainline” app. Trains go into Liverpool Street which is East London. I would then make a list of what she wants to see. Some things are free, others are not.

For general living expenses, without sightseeing, most students need around £4-500 a month, depending on how frugal
they are - or not. in addition to rent. Do Essex have any finance info on their web site to help with planning? Is there an exchange office? There should be info for incoming students.

There is a quiet side to Essex, in the countryside, and obviously lots of student events on site as it’s a campus. Just try and decide about sightseeing though. When in Italy, DD found other exchange students wanted to travel but it costs more! Hope she enjoys her time here.

Oh thankyou! Yes, London will be in the cards, a lot, I would say!

it going to be such an experience for her, I just hope she meets some lovely people!

I went to Essex many many years ago and lived in north towers! It's a beautiful.campus and the north towers are close to the sports grounds I had an amazing view. Essex, and east Anglia, is very flat and known for it's big skies and orange sunsets. Colchester is not exactly the best university town/city but the uni is a few miles out. The train from Colchester will get you to London in an hour and easily to Norwich and Cambridge and also the coast.

When I was there the university was known for having a high percentage of overseas student. I pleated on a sports team with students from Europe, Asia and America. I'm sure your daughter will have a great time. What is she studying?

My mum did an MA at Essex when I was still in school (also in Essex). She had a group of students in her cohort from Brazil, Spain, Italy and other interesting places.

She did note at the time that Colchester has a large military presence. (It has historically). I think the most recent numbers are 8000 students and 4000 military personnel in the area.

This is not going to affect your DD's time at the Uni. But it might be something she notices on night's out in Colchester.

She’s doing psych, I think she will be so happy. London is pretty epic for a young kiwi girl, and stsnstead will give her all those Ryanair flight opportunities!
600 quod a month would be pretty generous on top of rent? It’s only for 4 months and I don’t want her to struggle. Mind you, I will forking out that in Nz dollars!

My DD is at uni somewhere else and cooks from scratch and is thrifty with her food shop. She spends about £25-30 per week on food.

@nzeire I think I said £4-500 a month. This utterly depends on lifestyle. Does she like a drink? What about buying clothes? Going out? Although Essex is a campus she will need money to travel.

I am sure your DD can work out the exchange rate: in case you cannot - £500 is £1000 NZ dollars. Buying food from scratch always costs more. Parents often send dc with food and then it’s cheaper to top up. If she’s travelling, is she taking a packed lunch or eating out? The latter blows a £20 a week budget immediately! Especially in London. Coffee will be £3.50. $7. So sit down with her and budget as accurately as you can.

If she travels abroad, you need to budget far more. Where would she go from Stansted? That needs much more than £20 a week on food! There are coaches from Colchester to Stansted. Is she travelling on her own? Who is paying for flights and places to stay? What’s the budget? Some European cities are much more expensive than others.

London trips will be expensive. Rolling up for a train on the day of travel usually costs more. Book in advance via the Trainline app. Then there’s onward travel from Liverpool Street. A railcard for discounts might be worthwhile. Use bank card for underground trains or buy a fare with some underground included. Look at entry costs to places she might want to visit. Book tickets to exhibitions in advance. Museums are free but not special exhibitions. Planning ahead is key.

Your daughter will be blown away by how cheap food is in the supermarket (kiwi living in London) !

Food on campus is not as cheap as it used to be. They do have a daily deal in all outlets where you can buy a certain meal for £2 though, which is handy.

The shop is a bit steep and mainly convenience food.

There is a big Tesco a walk/short bus ride away which is very popular with the students.

North Towers is a lot of fun, they have house keeping staff there who work in the towers Monday to Friday. The SU always has bits and bobs going on and the campus itself is beautiful in terms of walks.

Hope your DD has a blast!

Some students will have a lot less money than others so I would not worry if you need to give her less. The UK system for those without better off parents provides for a loan of £9978 a year which is to include rent paid. So a lot of students will pay rent from that and not have large amounts left over. Just give her what you can.

I would say to warn her to be careful on nights out. I am not saying Essex is dangerous particularly but it is probably not as safe and nor is London than NZ so she will need to be smart, never let anyone get her drinks in case something is slipped into one, stay with friends when out late at night particularly if drinking. Don't go with strangers anywhere - just be wise and sensible and make sure emergency contact numbers are on her phone and location tracking is on.

We were yesterday with DS for an open day. I was really impressed. Nicely laid out campus and everyone was very friendly. It had a good atmosphere.

Re military, unless things have changed recently, personnel are only permitted on campus if on courses. Friday and Saturday nights in the city centre can be lively.
Railcard is definitely worth it.
if it helps, when DS did his semester abroad, he didn’t open a bank account but used a fee free credit card and had a cash debit card which I topped up with his allowance. We had paid his accommodation directly. Just need to remember to pay in £ not NZ dollars. In his case Euro not £. Oh and a bit of cash for when she arrives.

Oh fantastic tips and ideas, lovely, thankyou!

she has quite a bit saved from working since she was 15, so that will be most of the travel fund. She has a friend doing an exchange in Germany, so they will try and meet up in Paris? Amsterdam? Copenhagen? Omg, where they want!

oh to be 20 again!

she’s half Irish, so has lots of cousins dotted around to visit too!

Standard single in North Towers is £120 a week. So pretty cheap if DD has been allocated that. So £5000 ish for 42 weeks. For one semester it’s half that. Not sure what money is available from NZ government for exchange students.

Definitely try and develop antennae for avoiding difficult situations. Mostly everywhere is safe for “tourists” but reading maps, thinking about travel planning and not being 100% trusting, is a good skill. I always said to DDs to get into another carriage or train if you feel uncomfortable.

if she goes to Ireland, it’s easy from Stansted, DH did a day trip when DS laptop broke and the bus from airport cost more than the airfare. However Dublin is very expensive, even compared with London.
Also some form of ID so she doesn’t need to carry her passport everywhere. I think a student I’d card should be sufficient.

This is Tesco's website which will give an idea of food prices, the Colchester website says they have a meal deal for £2. That is very cheap and eating outside of that for a takeaway would be a lot more. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/

Our DD will have £400 a month plus accomodation paid from us and I think that should cover food, drink (doesn't drink much), day to day living expenses, books, going out around university etc though she hasn't started yet and is not frugal. But things like a weekend away, a trip somewhere would be extra, train travel can be a lot cheaper booked in advance. If my DD was coming from abroad I would give more like £600 a month if she wants to travel around a bit and / or might need to take a taxi to the station sometimes. £200 might cover a couple of days out a month further away including getting food out and a bit of shopping and travel and an activity. It could be more like £50 if train is say £30 and she's careful. Obviously if she wants to go to say Paris or Brussels/Bruges on the Eurostar from London or stay in hotels that would add again but most students here would earn to pay for that sort of thing.

Might be worth looking at local papers on line to get an idea of local life. Evening gazette Colchester and Essex County Standard.

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/

Thanks for all this, I will give to her to read.

she isn’t spoilt, I have to say. She’s worked so hard for all of this, I just don’t want her to miss out on the last shebang! She’s on her own financially from the minute she finishes!

It’s swings and roundabouts. She has relatively cheap accommodation. The extras are really down to travel. I’d say don’t pass up the opportunity. Go for it.

If she wants to see more of Europe, Stansted airport is great. Colchester to Stansted on the airport bus is only £2 each way until Dec 2024. My DD gets the airport bus and has flown all over Europe for as little as £14. Her and a friend would often head off to places like Sofia on a Friday afternoon for 3 nights. Since September she has been to Lisbon (Portugal), Riga (Latvia), Malta, Zadar (Croatia), Viga (Spain) and Frankfurt (Germany). She rarely pays more than £25 each way.

Going into London by train will cost more than flying to Italy!

Clubs and bars won't accept a student ID card as proof of age. IME they will only accept a passport or driving licence.

Colchester is quite lively, a lot of pubs and some good music nights. There are buses for the university that link to the main station (north), which is up a rather tough hill from the main parts of town. There is a castle and a very large park which is great in the daytime, lots going on there, but treat cautiously at night.

Stansted for travel is a good bet, certainly. You could even take an overnight ferry from Harwich (the train joins up to it) to get to Holland and from where you land, train to Amsterdam. It's relatively cheap for a cabin. There's also a few ways of getting to the coast and beaches around the county for days out which will be hilariously small and British compared to the NZ experience, but still fun with friends. Some are the amusements and donuts kind of places (Southend - but a lot of people quite like 'Adventure Island' there) and some are more old fashioned or natural (I like Mersea Island, at some points, a real and tiny island, again closer to Colchester; there are growing opportunities to do things like go paddleboarding in some of the waterways or bays. And it holds festivals like Secret Island or Cosmic Puffin too).

There is a flight from Stanstead to Galway I think (there used to be, anyway) if she fancies a weekend there, its an amazing place and if she has that Irish connection she might be interested in that.

When I’ve been involved with overseas students, they tend to want the major capital cities. Places that are famous. So I guess that’s another decision! Galway or Paris?