A third of UK students now planning to live at home

[born2bme]

Interesting stats here showing the cost of living impact on students:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70gy180e8lo

A third of new UK students now planning to live at home.
Nearly 10% of new Open University students are school leavers.
And "most" full time students reportedly working in term time.

I’m never convinced by the ‘living out broadens your horizons and lets you experience real life’ argument. What I learned by living away from home was how to drink enormous amounts as cheaply as possible and had lots of opportunities to put myself at risk of sexual assault. I learned to do the minimum amount of work to get by. Virtually all my friends and certainly all my flatmates were just like me - white and middle class (this was the early 90s at a big Scottish uni). I got a job during the holidays but not during term time. I got a grant and my parents paid my rent - we were all so skint that we really didn’t learn anything about budgeting, we were just skint all the time. I already knew how to cook and clean. I had an absolutely brilliant time in lots of ways but looking back on it - it didn’t cost me anything really, and I wouldn’t pay the current prices / get into debt just to have a 4 year piss up.

DS1 started uni last year and stayed home (we’re not in the UK, and the whole student culture is very different here). My nephew in Scotland starts this year at a local uni and he’ll be staying at home - he can’t see any point in paying £10k a year when he can stay in his nice house, washing done, food provided, close to his old mates, for nothing.

Not surprised. I teach in an affluent area of Surrey and we've noticed a big uptake for the local university. Who wants £60,000 debt??

What my DDs learnt was getting on with others, cooking for friends and being wholly responsible for food shopping, cleaning, bills, household admin, finding somewhere to live, studying abroad for a year with a great deal of admin and independence needed, and generally not having mum and dad around doing everything for them. They learn to navigate set backs without parents hovering.

Where could my DD have studied MFLs by staying at home? A car would be needed and the option would be Oxford or UCL. No public transport to either without driving to a bus stop or station. So it’s simply not the same as living away. It certainly was not 4 years of getting drunk and students are not all like this.

if dc live in a city with a suitable university commensurate with their academic standard and they want a local job, stay at home but it’s maturing at a different rate.

If dc don’t pay for accommodation, they certainly haven’t saved £60,000. They are almost certainly having a loan for the fees and the repayments are identical each month regardless of how much is borrowed. If you are going into a high earning profession, or want to, staying in a local university might well cut that option out.

I don’t like the idea of them coming home late etc as I won’t be able to relax until they are home. Where can they hang about with friends talking about rubbish? I don’t really want to cook & clean for them but equally I don’t want them doing it at random times, empty loads etc.

Mines staying home because we have come to an agreement to keep their total overall loan costs down.

First year they’re taking out full maintenance loan as I’m currently on a low wage with a planned and guaranteed increase in 12mths.

for 2nd and 3rd year they’re only taking tuition fee loan as I’ll be getting a wage increase similar to their loan for the year and I’ll take over support. and they’ll get a part time job.

This way DCs loan total will be around £37 k instead of closer to 60k

do I want them to move out and have freedom given I’m single and would love to have some fun? Absolutly but I also did uni with zero family support at all and it was rough. I can’t do that to my own kid.

@SauronsArsehole The monthly repayments will be identical. Dc could pay it off sooner or never! You just don’t know. But if dc want the highly sought after careers, just studying at any old uni won’t hack it.

Going away to university was the absolute making of me, I was a very homely person and would have always lived near my family. Due to the 90s recession, there were no jobs so I went to uni and had an amazing time. Moved to a big city afterwards and never looked back. Living independently gave me a lot of life skills that I don't think I would have got otherwise.

No but I can see them getting better grades tbh

A gap year, working full time and saving up would mean a child could potentially fund themselves through uni alongside loans

This will be more common and not such a vast thing as students will be slightly older when they go to Uni and have some work experience, which will rather make them want to study or decide study isn't for them. It does affect STEM however as Maths students not encouraged to have a year out.

I think a "reset" of Uni isn't a bad thing..too many students went/go without fully appreciating the hard work academic subjects can involve. Vice Chancellors have just expanded Universities without a clear focus on quality in some universities. Student house costs are excessive and perhaps a drop in students living out in Yr 2 will make more houses available for local people to rent or own.

I am not sure employers want such dc. Training and effort made for a year? This might not be attractive to employers especially if they have apprentices. Young people cannot find employment either so where are these jobs?

You obviously don’t tell your employer you’ll only be around for a year. Although most people my age (early 30s) tend to job hob every 2-3 years anyway

I wonder whether you would get so many going if it meant living at home. No doubt there are a certain proportion who go just for the partying and socialising, get a rubbish degree, and rack up tens of thousands in debt which they spend the rest of their lives paying back.

When I went to university in the 1990s, it was only £30 a week rent so £900 for 30 weeks altogether (we had three 10 week terms and you didn't have to pay for the holidays). My husband's rent was £27 a week so £810. Google AI says £900 would be roughly equivalent to £2400 now. I am not sure why student accommodation has gone up by so much.
I also didn't have any tuition fees when I went to university so it was not very expensive and as less people went to university, it was easier to get a job afterwards.
I have discussed going to university with a number of my friends who went in the 1990s and we all think it was fun but we all agreed that it exposes you to some bad influences.
I was also talking to an 19 year old girl the other day who said she misses being at school because she is only being taught 5-6 hours a week at her university and has hardly any work to do. She also can't get a part-time job so she says she is lacking purpose.
Nowadays a degree costs roughly £60,000. Does it really make sense anymore when graduates are struggling to get jobs that school leavers can get?

I totally agree. It’s sad that students are going to miss out on the full uni experience. Part of going to uni is being more independent too.

Students have been turned into clients, they are now consumers in a market. Stay at home students are making a perfectly rational decision to not incur £30k+ debt for the privilege of getting pissed up and shagging who they like without parental disapproval for 3 years. Learning to make spag bol for your friends does not justify the cost.

It’s interesting how it differs by each country within Uk too.
I paid £8,400 rent for dd last academic year. Her classes started 22/9 and her last exam 6/5. Such a huge amount of money for only 6 months in the university city.
It’s much easier to work if you are at home year round. My dd could have kept the pt job she had in sixth form if she’d stayed at home. She works in summer but has struggled to get a term time job in uni city.
I work in an area with a high Muslim population and see lots of girls commuting to uni, some probably down to cultural factors with families preferring girls to live at home.
Some perhaps disability related as some parents prefer children who are ND to be at home where they can support especially if they consider them young for their age.

My daughter will study at home for a combination of reasons. She already has flexible work, a serious boyfriend. Studying a health care degree with the additional bursary, she will he so much better off financially than many despite being from a lower income house hold. Her Nan only lives 5 minutes from her university so she always has the option of crashing there after a night out with uni friends.

My eldest stayed at home for their 4 year degree.
It was the course they wanted to do and they could drive there and back.
We hardly ever saw them! 😊
They worked pt and joined sports clubs and then got a bf.
They've cooked their own food and kept their room clean for years before going to uni 🤷‍♀️
The idea they weren't "independent" is laughable.
They know friends who did live in halls/houses and they are all back at home due to the job market and seem to have all (bar one) totally regressed into slovenly teens!
Younger dc now planning to stay at home, too. Great course, commutable...£30/40k less student debt.
One of the staff af the last uni open day we went to said over 40% of students now live at home.
I also think the "uni experience" is just not the same post covid.
How young people communicate/socialise has totally changed.

You are not independent if you don’t have to find a home with others, don’t pay the bills and don’t have to get on with anyone else you’ve just met in a flat. Your idea of inference isn’t mine but dc just treated you as a convenient place to live and spend money on a car! However only dc getting full loan get £10,5000 a year loan. Students with parents earning decent money don’t. They don’t even get £5,000 so that’s £20,0000 not £30,000 plus. If they are saving this much they definitely are Molly coddled. They are not paying for food, bills etc.

Dc bought their car, funded through their savings and job.
Yes, we pay for some of their food and didn't charge rent, but I'm sure most parents wouldn't?
They only got basic maintenance loan so that covered text books, and the semester abroad.

😁 true!

I barely recognise where I used to live off Woodlands Road area. I sometimes take a look on Google and crikey it's changed!

I do think living away from home is a good thing at university but I think some students do it for a year or two rather than all 3 years now it they go to a local uni.

It's all a bit of a mess funding wise for students and for universities....but the impact on cities has been huge too... I don't think cities are university theme parks or shouldn't be. Durham is more gown than town than ever. Such a shame from want it was.

This.

The hours per week will vary massively by course. My healthcare degree is 3-4 full 9-5 days a week. Do 16-32 hours a week depending on the term. But yes my arts degree was more like 6 a week and lots of independent study.

@Badvocthebad So you basically agree. Your dc is not independent! Neither have they saved £30,40,000 on a minimum loan! The max loan yes - but many don’t get that.

Plenty of students can be treated as adults and flee parents.