How much (or little) to save towards uni costs?

[scuddingxx]

I'm planning ahead... and thinking we may well be retired by the time our primary aged children go to university... so we're going to need to put aside savings.

How much does uni cost for a typical 3/4 year course?

How much to save for living expenses...?

What do most people do? I don't plan on paying for everything but I want to have something useful set aside.

How many years before your dc go to uni?

DD is going to uni next year.
It is not worth worrying about the cost if the course as they pay that back when they are earning.
First year rooms seem to be anywhere between 4,500 and 6,500 for the year and then living expenses on top.
I believe it is cheaper second and third years when they house share.
DD has £15,000 in savings, having a year out so likely will get a job and add to that before she goes.
The student loan or whatever it's called these days will cover living costs and again that doesn't have to be paid back until working.

Depends where they go and what finance is available to them. Plus how sensible they are!
Make sure they can cook etc

Dd1 is pretty much living off her student finance. No job but is using her savings for trips/laptop etc. Getting job for the summer.

Dd2 is looking at a more expensive city so likely to need more help.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.gov.uk/student-finance&ved=2ahUKEwj5uIT4kYbhAhXuSRUIHeiXDh4QFjAHegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw1zhn5-x9KfSknQsYuMMNA4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.gov.uk/student-finance&ved=2ahUKEwj5uIT4kYbhAhXuSRUIHeiXDh4QFjAHegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw1zhn5-x9KfSknQsYuMMNA4

The link is to student finance.
It's now called maintenance loan.

It's a tricky one because it's hard to predict what the rules and support will be in the future.
One of mine so far has gone through. She was very sensible. Worked through but luckily did a course where that was possible and was in London where work was plentiful. In reality it was a bit of a gamble because we planned to pay out of Income and luckily we were both working too.
Youngest dd if she goes at 18 I will be nearer 60. My aim is to have around 15000 put away as a mid point.

Course fees are covered by the loan. Living costs - halls/rent etc comes out of a means tested loan so it depends how much the parents earn as to how much loan your child can have. It’s expensive. We pay the rent and the other loan covers food/bills/books etc. It is costing us £650 a month rent & last year halls were £140pw for 39 weeks. So it’s costing us about £6000/£7000 a year for 5 years. Some kids have to work. Mine cant due to health/course hours. I now work full time instead of part time which helps so i think it’s a great idea to start saving now.

£10k a year for living plus the fees ( if any). The maintenance loan usually doesn’t cover hall fees, so you will need to help them out in first year if they stay in halls. Or they will need to get a job.

Not all courses are 3-4 years , a few are 5 or even 6.

I’m saving what I can, but am also going to encourage mine to do what I did and take a gap year before university and work and save up. It gave me so much extra maturity and a good cushion of savings. And I was able to go back as a holiday job throughout the university years.

Im0gen yes I did 5 years at university so was very glad of my holiday job and savings!

It’s good that you are thinking ahead, many people don’t realise that the living cost part of the loan is means tested based on parental income.
If you get the minimum it’s about £4500 the max is more like £10,000 (outside of london) so you may need to contribute £5,500 to get them up to max amount. It’s debatable if they can then live on £10,000 it depend where they are, some halls are very expensive, so you may also need to top them up a bit or they may need to get jobs.
They will get a loan for the full fees.

DD took the tuition fees loan which was £9,000 per year.
She was eligible for the maximum maintenance loan which was approximately £8,400 per year.
This covered all her expenses. Her accommodation is about £5,500 and the rest she has for groceries, going out, clothes, travel and study materials etc. She makes it last and doesn't come to us for help.

I could only work part of the year because of placements. Those who did try to work as well got burnt out very quickly and weren't really performing that well.

Those on health courses are on and off placement throughout the year and don't get standard uni holidays either.

A friend of mine was on a psychology course which was f/t 5 days a week so not much time to work at all either.

Those in halls on my course said that their loans only just covered rent and in some cases didn't cover it and their parents had to top up their rent plus pay living expenses.
The rent goes down when they get student housing but the living expenses tend to increase. Bills are higher, transport costs to and from uni. Some courses with placements can require you to have a car.

I think it would be sensible to budget for about 6k a year minimum. If they need less then bonus.

My DD only got the minimum maintenance loan, which was £1k short of her rent, so we topped that up with a lump sum annually, then gave her a further £200 a month spread throughout the year to live off. Over the 3 years it cost us £10k. She worked part time in her first 2 years too.
We started saving up when she was born, £50 a month in an investment ISA. We had enough left in it when she left to give her towards a deposit for her first home.

I’m saving what I can, but am also going to encourage mine to do what I did and take a gap year before university and work and save up. It gave me so much extra maturity and a good cushion of savings. And I was able to go back as a holiday job throughout the university years

That sounds like a good plan, but it's always worth checking that delaying a year doesn't make them fall foul of a rule change that would significantly disadvantage them - like when tuition fees increased.

What you need to save also obviously should also depend on what you can afford to save - don't be skinting yourself now to save for uni. As retired parents, you are unlikely to be expected to contibute much by the system, unless you have very good pensions.

Make sure you understand the system of loans etc - so many people get frightened by the debt and interest rate, and are completely oblivious to the fact that only a minority of students are expected to repay in full and the fee could be a million pounds a year and the interest rate a hundred percent a week and it wouldn't affect the amount of money they paid back by a single penny under the current system.

Saving and planning is good but it's also worth considering that university isn't right for everyone and even if they do, they don't have to do it in the 'normal' way. Eg they could be much more suited to a trade or anothe career path or they could follow a graduate career but do it in conjunction with an employer, so they will have a job, gain experience and earn money while they study, and their employer will pay their tuition costs too. Of course if you save money that they don't end up needing for university, they can always use it for something else expensive and useful like a house deposit, pension or driving lessons and a car.

DD gets the basic maintenance loan and has a job along side her studies. We pay £270 month rent plus her mobile phone.

Accommodation in London is around £9k per annum. I think it will cost at least £75k for a 3 year degree in London. Much of this can be taken as a loan dependant on parental income.

If your income is high then the maximum maintenance loan is around £5.6k leaving a gap of £8k or so each year to be funded by the student.

I'd say saving £5k a year if you have two kids at primary would be very helpful.

Uni is ball breakingly expensive.

I have DD's 22 and 24 who have both recently finished uni.

DH and I earned about £60k per year between us and both DD's got tuition fees loan and a maintenance loan which covered their accommodation (outside of London) and left a little bit over, about £300 per year . We gave them both £200 per month and they both got part time jobs about 10 hours per week and they managed fine without ever going into their overdraft.

So really its how much do you earn? Are they likely to be going to uni in London? Will they get a part time job?

Lots of great points thank you everyone...

DC are 7 & 10.

So... are assets (currently) taken into account or just income? Our income will probably be below the threshold by that time.

We will still save keep saving what we can in case uni is something they want to do.

No it’s just parents income. Unless the student has supported themselves for several years, then it’s on their own income.

Even if your child doesn’t want to go to uni, savings can be used towards a car, driving lessons or a deposit on a flat. So IMO it’s good to save for them if you can possibly afford it ( I know lots of people can’t ).

Everyone is different, but personally I have no plans to hand over a lump sum to my teen or twenty something kids. I’ve seen too many of them piss it up the wall.

I want to spend my money on something for them that will last, like an education or property. I don’t care of that makes me controlling, it’s my hard earned money, I can spent it how I like.

My oldest didn’t need it for uni so I’ve just helped her buy a flat. It’s all tied down legally so some future partner can’t take it off her ( I’ve been on MN for a long time ) .

Do you have a pension ? Do you have emergency savings ? Pay off debts. Do these first

My parents paid my rent (6k a year) and I used my maintenance (3k pa) / work for everything else.
I was there 2013-17 (BA and MA)

If you want my full Cost?

For 3 undergrad years I paid:
£27k fees
£18k rent
£18k I worked for living costs.

So: £63k altogether to be comfortable.

DPs parents paid his rent, fees and £150 a week in allowance. So £45k ish altogether.

Don't bother, I worked and I pay £36 a month in repayment. It doesn't affect us.