Students living at home - maybe an expected but saddening trend

[mids2019]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g09p93m29o

Anecdotally this is really becoming a thing and due to costs students are eschewing the whole student experience of living away from home. As well as cost savings I think there is a perhaps savvy realisation that being thrown into a house or hall with strangers is maybe a step too far from an exploratory point of view. No one wants to be quiet one in a party flat or corridor for instance. In addition I think parents of girls fully realise some of the dangers of being away from home for an extended period perhaps for the first time combined with plenty of access to drugs and alcohol is not perhaps the safest.

However could the prospect of university just being an extension of school from a living point of view limit social mobility with students preferring a home town university to one some distance away with a better reputation?.Does work need to be done (and ideally in some fantasy world funded)_to ensure working class kids are not being put off well regarded unis because of distance?

Young people who have parents who don’t want them to move away to study at uni for whatever reason are probably the young people who need to move away from home!

Also grammars have been decimated. Along with them so has social mobility. Everybody must be equal.

Yep equality is good. Even if you don’t agree with it.

It doesn’t work. Communism, socialism, they don’t work. Dragging people down instead of lifting people up. It’s incoherent if we want a working economy and society.

I think it's a shame if some young adults are having to live at home and commute because of escalating costs and parents fears.
Moving away from home and living in halls should be a choice all students are able to make.

Dd stayed at home for uni partly due to cost. She still had a great time on her course and made friends, joined sports clubs, etc.

she hasn’t failed to launch at all. Left home at 24yo, lives in a flat share now and seems absolutely fine.

It’s not always about partying. Meeting people from outside your small town with different upbringings, cultures and ways of doing things, navigating a new place with a different energy, having to figure things out yourself, opportunities that aren’t available where you live, etc. These are some of the good things my DS got out of his uni experience aside from higher paying work than he’d ever get without his degree.

Nonsense

What’s nonsense?

I agree Communism doesn’t work in reality, it’s just an excuse to keep the little people little while the powerful carry on getting richer. I’m pretty sure every communist country has been led by rich tyrants and despots.

I do believe in socialist aspects and, unlike America, a bit of socialism doesn’t mean communism.

I think this was entirely predictable years ago. Parents can’t afford ever increasing costs of their own and university fees and someone else’s rent for 3+ years. Plus the decline in party culture for that generation and more socialising online means it’s pointless living away for some. Sad but true.

I have thought for a long time that the whole huge debt thing changes the game.
add in the on line element and low contact time and I see why DC question.
Even 15 years ago when I worked in a related field and on line was becoming a thing students were questioning fees v contact time

We’ve never had socialism apart from after ww2. What is very clear is capitalism doesn’t work. It’s crumbling round us.

That pretty much sums it up for DD. We have two universities within "commutable" distance, but poor public transport with frequent cancellations.

DD also doesn't have a huge friendship circle at home and wanted to live in a city. She was very lucky and managed to make new friends easily, had no issues with any of her flatmates and is still friends with a handful of people from her course.

sorry- quoted wrong post so deleted

I think in most of countries students do not live away from home if they can commute daily. It just doesn't make financial sense.
I grew up in Central Europe and commuted daily to school since I was 14. I woke up at 6 am to catch a train at 6:50 (15 min walk), then had a bus at 7:20, I was at school at 7:40 (classes started at 8:00). I did the same at the uni. Sometimes I was back home at 3pm and sometimes at 8:30pm. Sometimes I stayed with friends.
I do admit it was physically draining sometimes, especially if the lectures were spread over the whole day and the winters were so cold and long, so I either went window shopping or spent time at the British Council library (it was warm and BBC was on the whole day). But I kept fit and thin and walked a lot. Also, no money to eat hot lunch sometimes, so survived on crossaints. At the uni I did party the whole night sometimes, but didn't really enjoy it. I've never been a drinker. I stayed with friends if I had to and didn't really need to live in the city. I went back home daily and had peace, my own room and no noisy roommates. Moved out at 23 when I got a job.

For us I think it's pretty limiting for her to stay at home. We live in Oxfordshire. She does not have the grades for Oxford Uni, she could go to Oxford Brookes but the commute in would be awful, there was hardly any parking when I was there. She could take the train and then the bus which would be a long commute in.
She could apply to Northampton, no idea what parking is like but it's currently 119th in the leagues tables which is fine as is Buckingham but she has been offered unconditional places at Durham, Hartpury, Exeter and Bath so feels like it would be a compromise. She has taken a year out and has a lot of savings, between us we think we can cover it all. I do think her taking a year out to save was a smart thing to do as she will be going to uni with her own money not just an allowance from her parents.

@WombatChocolate

I’d argue that the rise of self-catered accommodation in flats, and often the lack of communal (or well-used) communal spaces, such as bars, dining rooms or JCRs has made a big difference to the uni experience for many.

I fully agree. My son found Uni quite isolating. He was in a flat of total of 8 people and struggled to "fit in" with them. What was worse was that it was the covid year when the campus bars, common rooms, etc were locked, so there was nowhere to socialise with anyone else. It all really ruined his Uni experience.

My yp goes to a uni an hour away but still lives away. We encouraged them to do so, and it's been a very positive thing for them. They were already pretty independent anyway but have really enjoyed being responsible for themselves and having their own space. They are not big party goers, don't mind the odd night out but has found a house with similar people and loves their little place.

They have a friend who goes to the same city but travels and they are enjoying their experience.

Also, because of Covid, the "self catering" students were banned from the campus cafes/restaurants which were only open to the "catered" students and they had security on the doors checking the student's ID cards to check they were "catered" and would bar any self-catering students from going in. That made it even harder to socialise.

My DC have stayed at home through choice. Neither were interested in the "uni experience'' and didn't want to get into a load of excessive debt. I couldn't support them fully (best laid plans didn't account for divorce) and so they would have had to work very hard to support themselves. As it is, they've stayed home, live rent free and kept their part time jobs. They have a nice balance of study/work/socialising and seem very happy with their decision. Uni life isn't for everyone but unfortunately it's necessary if you want to go into a certain career. We are fortunate to live in an area though with several universities in commutable distance.

@CandiedPrincess

We are fortunate to live in an area though with several universities in commutable distance.

A very important and valid point. There'll be lots of people, especially out in the regions, who don't live within an easy/realistic commute of the nearest Uni that does the course they want, and many won't be near any Uni at all. Outside the major cities, public transport is often pretty crap.

Presumably though @CandiedPrincess if you didn’t live where you live your kids would have to just suck up the ‘uni experience’ and see it as a means to an end to get the career they wanted?

I agree. I am detecting a tiny hint of smugness from the city dwellers on this thread.

I don't expect DD to come back and live here. There just aren't the job opportunities, and she does enjoy having access to good public transport where she is.

No smugness here @RampantIvy . I'll move further away from where I am once DC have moved on elsewhere for post grad ..... I'll be working until I am 71 if I don't to pay my mortgage.