True University Costs for Bank of Mum and Dad

[Richielogic]

Nothing anyone can really help me or advise on, its more of a gripe / moan really:-

I have two teenagers both going to UNI. Daughter this year and Son who is a year two student. My wife and I work our socks off full time, usual costs as you can expect and cost of living crisis will hit us like everyone else.

For child 1:-
The uni tuition fees are paid in full at £ 9,250 - great
The maintenance loan is £ 4,524 discounted from £ 9,706 due to means testing.

So Bank of mum and dad are on for £5,200+ to make up the short fall according to SFE.

In reality the uni accommodation alone is £8,096. Yes there were some cheaper ones but due to covid last year and deferred applications for this year, numbers are high and its difficult to secure them.

Also allowance on top to support whilst they settle in, for food and costs to support whilst they find part time jobs etc. So i estimate it is going to cost bank of mum and dad about 9k per child per Uni year

I guess my point is we talk a lot about student debt but in reality it doesn't even cover all the costs associated with them going to University. The maintenance loan doesn't even cover accommodation. Bank of mum and dad cop for a chunk of it.

So in my case i need to net £18k earnings to ensure my two children can go and despite that they will both finish a three year course with £41,322 student loan debt - ridiculous.

What about those children whose parents don't support them??

The way its going, seriously its going to end up that only the elite go. The costs are just obscene.

Some children are having to factor in accommodation costs at the specific university in deciding the University Rather than going to the one that's best for the subject matter and their development

Anyhow it is what it is

Any parents out there helping support this years costs i feel your pain..

Snap! In the same boat here with one in London so all the extra costs of living there.
why SFE ask for income but not expenses is ridiculous.
we’ll help as much as we can but it’ll be very hard on the ones who cant afford help and many students still struggling to get work
With the energy crisis, a lot of the hospitality and retail places they would normally have worked in, will be cutting down I imagine!

Exactly @MooFroo its really tough and as you say because parents expenses are not a consideration you can have situations where the student doesn't get the full maintenance loan due to parents income, they cant afford to top it up and the student is having to make up the short fall on top of everything else.

I hadn't considered the lack of retail/ hospitality jobs, my focus was on helping to find accommodation, that will be the next thing.

Looks like i need to be working that bit longer them....

This is me. My daughter is off to uni, and already, with the preparation of her move it’s like writing a blank cheque. Accommodation fees are ridiculous too, ours just under 8k?!

It's much worse in the US if that's any consolation. We have one who graduated in May and one with two years to go. And uni is four years here. We've been saving for it since they were toddlers.

Numbers of students living at home have gone up massively. It's not great for them tbh.

My parents didn't support me. I struggled. I dropped out. Lots of middle class dc drop out when their parents don't help them. It's a shame there isn't an alternative available to students that have this happen to them. I thought I'd manage but I didn't. I still ended up in plenty of debt and no degree.

The cost of maintaining a dc at university can be extortionate. My dd’s rent in Bristol was over £8000 and then there were utilities and other bills on top. The cost of rent, utilities, maintenance, contact lenses, phone, travel, sport and entertainment over a 4 year degree has seen me spend £48,000, excluding tuition fees.

I appreciate that students can get part time jobs, have a gap year and rent cheaper accommodation and dd did that for the first two years.

I don’t know how students will cope with the cost of living crisis and it is deeply worrying.

@bevelino exactly, my DD rent alone is £ 8096
Vast bulk of halls in the £7k to £8.5k range before you look at other costs.

Bottom of range just shy of £5,000 where you are talking 6 to 8 sharing a kitchen and toilets and washing area. As i say one lad said he "got used to it" but advised to pack flip flops. Absolutely ridiculous. I dread to think...

Top of the range, small studio with own mini kitchen area £12,852 - i mean come on who can afford that?

It does not surprise me that it cost you £ 48k over 4 years with everything else factored in. I'm being naive to think I can cover it at £9k a year each.

Happy days...

I lived at home for uni 15 years ago. It was fine, I got the education I needed which was the point and I/we saved thousands of pounds. I also had a part time job so could pay for my own phone bill, petrol, nights out.

When I was at uni there were grants. Many parents refusef to pay their assessed contribution. The only solution for any student in this position was to sue their parents. It's always been rough for some.

I think this comment shows that expectations for halls have changed too. When I went to uni, almost all were like this. There were some newer smaller flats but not many.

We had 8 to a kitchen, 4 to a shower/toilet and it was fine. The shared laundry for the whole halls site was a nightmare mind.

That aside, it is outrageous that even a full student loan barely covers rent now. My course was really full on and people struggled to work around lectures and pried commitments.

*Bottom of range just shy of £5,000 where you are talking 6 to 8 sharing a kitchen and toilets and washing area"
That's pretty standard isn't it? All the friends I visited at uni had a tiny bedroom with a single bed and desk, shared kitchen and toilets. Maybe the expectation of a double room and en suite is why the costs are so high.

@bevelino
May i ask you what realistically you found you were supporting weekly for DC to go about uni life in Bristol, food, events, sports, clubs etc etc on top of the rent cost? Assuming NO part time work, worst case scenario.

The tenancy agreement runs 17/9 to 8/7 which is 42 weeks but they are not there for all of that.

Website says/ So i calculate:
Autumn Semester: 17/9 to 17/12 - 13 weeks
Two weeks off Christmas
Then 7/1 to 21/1 - 2 weeks

Spring Semester: 21/1 to 25/3 - 9 weeks
Three weeks off 27/3 to 14/4
Then 15/4 to 10/6 - 8 weeks

So we are funding a total of 32 weeks by my calculation?

If it was £200 per week that's £6,400 does that sound realistic?

Thanks in advance

OP
Could you really not have secured cheaper accommodation? What sort of accommodation is it?

And you don’t mention your combined wages.

My daughter got the full loan and was fine. She wasn’t in London, but certainly isn’t in a cheap city.
We used the student finance calculator to see what she was eligible for and chose accommodation according. She worked really hard in the run up to uni, and had savings, which she used for extras.

I lived in my own flat when I was at uni and worked two jobs. Certainly not a chance of any help from parents. The DC get a job. Full time in the summer, part time in term time.

We've done the figures with DC a little while back. We can't afford to top up as much as we would be expected, yet alone cover the hidden costs.

DC is now taking a year out to earn money. Grated, DC has been very lucky to get a job with decent pay in the field they want to study/ work for a career.

DC has also found out they could potentially do a degree apprenticeship in this particular field, which would be better financially all round. But we'll have to see what the future holds.
I do think that for some academic subjects there isn't such an option and we'll loose all the bright, innovative students who will be replaced by the ones that "have" or "can afford".

My dd is going into year 2 London uni ( has no where to live yet but that’s another story) I am paying the fees myself and year 2 cost me just over £20k. Year 2 will be more like £22k and I give her a weekly allowance of £65 but she has a part time job that pays her £150 a week. She saves some of this and doesn’t need it. Biggest cost for her is tube travel (other than fees/ rent)

I saved from when mine were babies because parents have always had to pay towards maintenance- well it was the case in the 1990's when I went. Tuition is completely separate. I had 2 at university until last year and dp had one as well... this year only one is still studying so it feels cheap.

Minimum maintenance here

@dressupinyou
Bulk of accommodation now tends to be 6 or 8 rooms all with en-suite sharing one kitchen area. I would say 70% is like that. In the mid range.

Not talking big rooms here, I'm talking she can sit on bed and work table is 2 ft away. Its compact. This is an example of student video of room

The room in that video is £ 8,701 for the period and 1.1m from the University so is more expensive than my DD room at £ 8096 - a bargain LOL

Mine paid under £5k for halls (self catering but were en-suite) then it's just a case of living costs. They both managed on significantly under the £9k

I think expectations have changed a lot since I was a student though. I got nothing from my parents I didn't even go home in the holidays just to visit at Christmas. I worked full time every holiday and I did 20-30 hours part time in term time, care work so doing nights and evenings helped to fit the hours in around lectures. I shared a bathroom and kitchen with everyone on the corridor in halls in first year then moved to a house share with 6 people. We shopped at Lidl, had house parties, shopped in charity shops. I'm still paying my student loan back, not even halfway through but only a tiny amount a month so it doesn't bother me.

I wouldn't expect to carry on funding my kids if they did an apprenticeship or got a job after school, why would I carry on paying for them if they were a student. The amount of time spare around lectures to work is actually loads and working whilst a student helps to get a job afterwards.

Why aren't your children getting jobs to support themselves?

I worked all of the summers of years 11,12 & 13 because I knew I was going to need the money. I arrived in London on the Saturday before my first term and had a bar job by the following Thursday.

I worked all of the first two years and then had enough saved to concentrate on studying in year 3.

University isn't only about study, it's about learning to cope as an adult, being short of cash, budgeting etc

This needs to be publicised so much more. In the US there is a culture of parents setting up College Funds for there kids almost from birth. This is what we need to get to otherwise there will still be this barrier to higher education. Either that or adopting the European model of going to your local Uni and living at home

It does vary massively from uni to uni. In some you can end up being allocated expensive halls which were low on your list of priorities.

We're very fortunate that DD (who starts next week) got a room for £4.8k. It's in a shared house owned by the uni, with four others, two minutes walk from campus. Big kitchen, dining room, shared bathroom, and even a back garden! But that sort of accommodation just isn't available at most places it seems.

Accommodation was a big factor in choosing her uni shortlist.

@Dotcheck Fully respect that Parents earnings are a factor in maintenance calculation but as @MooFroo pointed out they don't factor in parents expenses. I might earn more than someone on 25k but my net spendable income could be far less.

@dressupinyou Indeed, in my real life example the maintenance grant is £4524 and the accommodation alone £ 8,096 before all other living costs, travel, books, sports, clubs, food and entertainment.

Here is the calculator:
www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator
Once you have family income of £25k the amount the student gets is reduced. It doesn't take much for the grant to be smashed right down if DH and DW are both earning 25k or 30k each.

Its a dear game frankly supporting your children through university