Cost of student accommodation, I could cry

[ElbowsUpRising]

So Dd has found out today she’s been accepted into Manchester and is looking at accommodation, of course all the stuff she likes is £260 a week. 51 week contract as well! It’s all the fancy, swish stuff though she is adamant the reason she wants the expensive stuff is because she’s prioritising her safety as she wants something close as she’s “terrified of getting raped” if she has to walk back to her digs late at night.

she won’t consider a house share, she won’t consider cheaper halls a bit further out.

so accommodation is looking at 13k a year! She will get minimum student loan so think that’s 5k.

she won’t be able to work partly due to her health- she has fibromyalgia but nowhere near bad enough for PIP. Also she will be doing architecture Masters which if anything like her undergraduate degree will be too full on to be able to work as well.

so we will need to find another 8k a year plus however much she will need per week for food, etc. I’m guessing over £50 a week. Nearer £100 a week? So another 5k. How the fuck do people find 13k a year?

im trying to impress on her the difference that cheaper accommodation will make on her (us) and she’s just going nuts and accusing me of risking her safety and putting her at risk of being raped!

Is £260 a week normal?

All the buses from town/uni to fallowfiekd and back go past hulme hall.

I wouldn't be expecting to fund my offspring for their Masters to be honest unless I was in a financially very solid position and could easily.

I understand she has medical issues (I have fibro too) but plenty of students on Masters and with medical conditions work and if you can't afford to she is going to have to, particularly if she is wanting a more lavish lifestyle.

In regards to her comment about rape that is emotional blackmail. Sexual assault is horrific but can happen anywhere including on campus or two minutes down the road.
I know loads of young people who commute to Manchester Uni on the buses from us around 13 miles out because of the cost of uni accommodation and they manage just fine but even 3 or so miles out you should be able to get a small flat or small house share for much less than that

Oh god don’t start me off on this. So she finished her UG 18 months ago and in December 2023 started working for an architect firm on minimum wage. I suspect she’s saved nothing. She lived at home with no bills and refused to pay board. The company folded and she lost her job early Jan this year so she’s now unemployed. She immediately decided she wasn’t looking for anything else job wise as she’d be leaving in Sept and didn’t want to mess anyone around which was very magnanimous of her. She was also apparently burnt out after working for a year. Shes spending the next few months travelling. She’s off to Europe at the weekend for a month, hosteling so will be cheap apparently. Then off to Canada for two months in the summer. She’s thinking of going to Vietnam or South Korea inbetween.

She sounds like a right entitled little madam. Tell her to get an uber if she’s that worried. Honestly. She’s emotionally black mailing you into forking out for something you can’t afford.

You are quoting undergraduate loan info. A masters degree (unless architecture has a special arrangement like medicine) might only be eligible for a total loan for both maintenance & fees of around £12k. Parental income doesn't count, so there is no minimum. You get around £12k and that's it.

I think your DD needs to research the funding properly (unless it falls into a special category). Is it counted as an integrated masters (undergrad loan arrangements) or postgraduate (single £12k loan arrangement).

She doesn’t want to be with rowdy undergrad students, she’s hoping they’ll put postgrads together. No idea if that happens.

It is a special category, same rules as undergraduate loans.

I agree. I know times have changed but literally everyone on my Masters course was self funding either having saved up for a few years or via a Career Development Loan. At that age you can't really expect your parents to do it can you?

Stop doing this! This is for her to figure out surely!!

most MA Programmes are around 25% lectures, the rest being study time. She could get a Saturday/sunday job perhaps!?

Architecture is treated differently. Part 2 qualification (masters) is treated as an undergraduate as long as certain criteria are met

From what you have added..dopes she really want to study a masters or does she not want to work. Are you funding her travels...

So she’s having a 6 month holiday before studying for a year? Wow.

You’re joking right? That travelling must be expensive, and yet she’s insisting you fund the money for uni accommodation? What about these hostels she’s staying in, has she deemed them safe enough?
With this update I would absolutely be telling her no. She’s spending the money she should have saved for expensive accommodation if that’s what she wanted!

You’re joking right? That travelling must be expensive, and yet she’s insisting you fund the money for uni accommodation? What about these hostels she’s staying in, has she deemed them safe enough?
With this update I would absolutely be telling her no. She’s spending the money she should have saved for expensive accommodation if that’s what she wanted!

If she wants more expensive than you can afford then she’ll have to work, surely the point of her going to uni is to get a job eventually

You need to give her your budget and let her work out how to operate within it or top up. Is she postgrad to need 51 weeks? Is she used to uni life if she is being so sensationalist. Most citiy unis have off campus accommodation and other students cope just fine. Soical,luves are based elsewhere. If postgrad she probably won’t need to be on site every day anyway.

I’m paying the flight to Canada , she will stay with her boyfriend for free. She is using money I saved up for her as kid for a house deposit to fund her other travels.

Has she asked you if you can fund her course or is she just assuming you will? She sounds very entitled and not very mature for early 20s.

But yet can’t walk half and hour In Manchester in case she is raped?! Jesus wept!

Good grief. Will she expect that house deposit money topped up by you again, so she doesn’t have to rent somewhere she doesn’t feel safe?

If she can travel surely she can get a casual or part time job?

Do you have other children who will expect similar funding?

I can't believe she is being so demanding. The spending on travelling, and then demanding expensive accommodation from you would result in a flat no from me.

i think we always said we would fund it as we knew she needs to do the whole lot in order to be an architect. But I could have done without being shouted at this evening that apparently I’ve always known she was going back to uni so she doesn’t know why I’m making a fuss now.

What an entitled brat.

Who’s paying for that?!