Is it becoming more common to stay closer to home for uni?

[ClementinePancakes]

DS is year 12 and just starting to research some uni courses. He particularly likes (on paper) Southampton and Swansea, so we have started planning to visit in the summer. They are both pretty far from us, about 6 hours at least.
Everyone we have told this to has reacted with horror, because they are so far away.

I accept if he does end up at one of them, the drive at the beginning and end of term will probably be a two day undertaking with overnight stay, yes, a bit of a pain but not that horrifying.

Both my brother and sister were at uni a similar distance away, they didn’t really come home during term time (but then I didn’t either and I was nearer home - I didn’t really know anyone who went home at weekends). Is this the difference? Are students more likely to come home at weekends than they were 30 years ago? I suppose it could be for weekend jobs etc. Or are there other reasons if there is a trend to stay closer -are there cultural differences across the UK?
I get staying at home and commuting for cost reasons, but I’m talking more about moving away, but not far.

We are London and actively discouraged them from applying to London universities mainly because I didn’t want them to live at home and because it’s highly likely they’ll come back to London post university and it’s good for them to experience a different city and live away

we don’t know any kids really who have stayed at home for uni. One or 2 have gone locally due to SEN but all the rest are at least 70 miles away mainly, Nottingham Birmingham Leeds and Liverpool. A couple have gone to Edinburgh but generally they’ve gone no more than about 200 miles

post grad is a different matter all together. They all seem to move home for law school, PGCE, masters and training contracts

Very pertinent observations made by @Twitwootoo and other pps from London.

treating London as a single entity is perhaps unwise given the scale of its student population and progression rates to university.

There are some very significant differences between London Boroughs.

whilst near 45% from London are at a London Uni in Richmond it’s only around 25%; Bromley just under 30%, Kingston, Bexley and Sutton all around 37%; in contrast Westminster is close to 60%, and Tower Hamlets nearer 70%.

Around 6% from London are undergrads at Unis in the North East and North West; but over 14% from Richmond; just over 10% from Wandsworth.

7% from Kensington attend a Scottish Uni (mainly Edinburgh and then St.Andrews) compared with less than 2% from London overall.

Bristol Uni top destination for DCs from Richmond, followed by Nottingham, Durham and Manchester, and then Leeds, Exeter, Edinburgh, Oxford, and Newcastle also in the Richmond top 10. None of these ninevunis are in the overall top 10 destinations for London DCs. Kingston is in the Richmond top ten, and also the London top 10.

In Havering Anglia Ruskin number one destination, followed Canterbury Christ Church, East London, Greenwich, QMUL, South Bank, Essex, Kent and Westminster.

Back to West London and across the river from Richmond to Hounslow and the top current destinations are Kingston, Royal Holloway, West London, Canterbury Christ Church, Brunel, Roehampton, Kings, Bucks New, WMUL and Reading.

Across to South East and Bexley it’s Greenwich, Nottingham, Kent, Sussex, Canterbury Christ Church, Southampton, Portsmouth, Exeter and Leeds, and joint 10th Kings, Bristol and Warwick.

I actively encouraged my DC to study in London because it's where we lived. It's a fun, buzzing city. The universities offer some of the best educational experiences (rivalling Oxbridge) and it ultimately saved us so much money in the end because we were already London based.

One of my DC then did a masters at a northern uni and hated being so far away from all their friends and family in London.

One of mine commutes from home, main reason being the uni is really high in the rankings for their subject.

There was a times article on this the other week, if I can find a I’ll share it.

We live in a very popular university city. Quite a lot of young people stay local after A-levels and only live out at some of that time. I think they save a lot of money.

I've got 2 at uni, neither of them wanted to go to our local universities for the subject they wanted to study. The first one goes to Cambridge which is a 3 and a quarter hour drive from us. The other is at a uni 2 and a quarter hours drive away. That hour makes a big difference to how tiring it is as parents dropping and picking up by car, and how long it takes them to get home if they come by train. The one 2 hrs 15 mins away has been for nights out with his old school friends in other student cities, has nipped home for the night by train for orthodontist and other hospital appointments etc. It's much more of a hassle, and more expensive for the DS who is 3.5 hours away who has to go into LOndon and out again. He tends not to come during term time and we go to visit him instead midway during 2 of the terms.

The thing with London is that, for many subjects, the best non-Oxbridge courses in the country are at Imperial or LSE, and for some subjects at KCL and UCL. So, high-aiming applicants will often have them on their list. But once they get in, London accommodation is unaffordable to many, so the option is to live at home (often with a shorter commute than from uni accommodation or shared housing).

Add to that the second generation effect, which will help explain the Tower Hamlets figures above.

Just a little note to say - my DS is in his first year at Southampton and loves everything about it (so far!!). It's a wonderful uni

Btw a 6-hour drive can easily be done in a day if you stop for regular breaks.

Back in my day (20 years ago), I had to chose between Imperial College and Sheffield. I lived in London suburbs. I chose Sheffield as I didn't want to live at home and I couldn't afford London accommodation (plus by the time you added on the commuting, I would have paid more anyway!) Imperial was maybe slightly better, but Sheffield was where the innovation was happening in the field. (The only two universities that did the subject)

Our eldest is 13... the nearest university is 45 minutes drive. Theoretically they could commute there, but I hope they chose somewhere a bit further away. However its the course thats most important.

I think cost is becoming a much bigger factor so for some that might be transport costs, maybe living at home after a year of halls to get to know people, or moving to a cheaper part of the country. My eldest is only y10 but we've already had chats about the excessive coats of living in London and what that might look like compared to a more northern Uni or living at home and going to a more local one.

Well yes, it can, but some people don't want to drive for 6 hours, even with breaks. Not everyone enjoys driving.

DD was at university a 2 hour drive away (3+ hours by train). She is starting a masters very soon at another university that is 2 hours drive away. She chose both universities because they were her favourite.

When lockdown started I was glad it was only two hours.

DS will be 2nd year student next year at Uni 4/5 hours away. DD will start uni this year, applied to local ones to stay either at home or close enough to be home each weekend.

DS loves where he is, Bath, and has made it clear he sees it as home now. He was there last year but failed the first year as he was going through some medical issues but that’s a whole different story. I don’t think there are plans for him to return, unless work brings him back this way.

It makes me feel sad he is so far aware, but also happy is able to have the independence to feel settled away from home.

Hopefully this works, I'm a bit hit and miss with share tokens.

It is interesting, DC1 (sensible and financially aware) couldn't see the point in leaving home when our local uni was in the top 6 for their course. Four of their freinds have stayed at home too so they have a nice network here. Three friends travel on the train together each day they are in together. They have no accommodation costs, the bank of Mum keeps them/gives an allowance and they earn £100 a shift in a p/t job and do three or four shifts a month.

DC2 has been seriously ill and has no intention of leaving home for uni, despite illness they are predicted 3 x A*s. Their choice to stay at home is a combination of not feeling 100% health wise, our two closest unis being ranked 6th and 7th for their subject and a number of their friends chosing the same route.

I don't know whether it is because of really good universities being commutable where we live, but a lot of kids seem to be staying here for uni.

Actually, that isn't the article from last week I was thinking of at all😂, but a theme!

Surely that article though is possibly as much evidence that neither any great level of numeracy or indeed literacy is required to be a journalist these days. It would be useful if it had slightly mother context for the numbers quoted.

I see you’ve mastered the art of critiquing without actually saying anything of substance. Perhaps you could write for that publication!!

Mine all stayed within an hour of home, but we still rarely saw them, and they had jobs at Uni

😂@CloseYourRingStress i refer your to my earlier posts on the thread. The ones based on and quoting actual data. Don’t think I’d be welcomed at the Times with open arms.

tbf I will look at the HESA numbers that the Times article has quoted, and place them in context. As I said upthread I was expecting the cost challenges to create a shift in the living at home profile, and for this to be evident in the HESA datasets.

My son is planning to be about 3 hours away based on where he's applied, I doubt he will come home any weekends at all. Back in the day, I went 6 hours away and didn't come back at all.

I think there's a massive range. He will know when he visits how he feels and where he feels at home. My son visited 5 and got the gut feel at the last one he visited.

@ClementinePancakes we live in Greater London (TW postcode) and our son is in his final year at UCL which is just over an hour away. This has worked out well for him and us because:

• he spent year 1 in halls and year 2 in a flatshare, both in central london a few minutes walk from uni. This was an amazing experience for him - very different to living in the suburbs, and as UCL has so many international students he now has friends all over the world, as well as all over London and beyond.

• we were easily able to transport his stuff back and forth and, as I work in central London, I was able to deliver a few forgotten items, meet him for lunch (very) occasionally, etc.

• he was easily able to pop home for family birthdays and other special occasions.

• when he messaged to say he had flu a few days before Xmas and wasn't well enough to travel home by public transport, I was able to say "I'll be there in an hour" and pick him up.

• he made full use of his mandatory 12 month rental contract by staying there over the very long summer break, and working in London, but we still got to see him because he was close enough to also spend time at home.

• for his final year he chose to live at home, saving a fortune on rent, but he now has so many central London friends to sofa-surf with that he is still able to socialise etc. If he gets home in the early hours and doesn't feel like going back into London for lectures next morning it's ok because they're all recorded and he gets his attendance mark for watching them online.

So, no regrets from our perspective. Some friends whose children have gone much further away have found it harder, but everyone's experience is different.

Sorry @boys3 😂!

I thought a lot about the 'uni experience' and DC1 potentially missing out when they chose to stay at home.

I thought back to my own uni experience, I was quiet and studious and don't think I would have felt like I was missing out if I had chosen to commute from home. DC1 is quite like me in alot of ways. Post undergrad I went on to study at two other universities and my work took me overseas, so I don't think it hampered me gaining life skills/independence. It was just a different experience.

We have a fairly open house here, DC1 often brings friends home from Uni for the weekend, of course they're always starving/like a plague of locusts 😂. My only condition is that I don't want more than four of them overnight at once.

My Dd has gone from the south west to a uni in a northern town where most of the people she's met are relatively local, within commuting distance, and many do commute. She's not met anyone else from our part of the country at all, and most of her school friends have gone to universities down here within a 1.5 - 2hr radius.
This was the same for me though, I went far away (as did my parents) but most of my friends stayed closer to home.

Our nearest university is Southampton but neither DC wanted to stay close to home. Neither wanted to study in London either. They went to Oxford (an hour or so drive or train) and Cambridge (three and a half hours away by car) but they insured St Andrew’s and Durham so we were prepared for long journeys. Both are now living and working in London.

DC1 had 5 friends stay over last night! 😁 My only condition is that he messages me before they go to bed to let me know how many are in the house and where they are sleeping, so I don't walk in on them by accident.

Are students more likely to come home at weekends than they were 30 years ago?

One of DS’ housemates stays at his student house 2 nights a week because all his contact time is at the start of the week. He drives home after his second day of lectures. It would have been cheaper for him to book a Premier Inn. Another of his housemates spends most weekends away visiting his longterm GF. They all put off coming back at the start of term for as long as possible and head home asap. It’s very different to my uni experience 30 years ago. I suspect cost of living is a factor, but also loneliness because their house is often empty.