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..

This is why my son can't go to university, we can't afford it. It's not always that parents "won't" support their children. Some actually can't. I've had some shit about this from people who think I'm awful for not "allowing" DS to go to university. But we simply can't afford it.

Even if he got a job, how much can he realistically earn from a part time minimum wage job done around a degree course? 3 years of potential burn out from working or studying all the hours God sends, to end up with a generic degree and upwards of 40k of debt??

There is no Bank of Mum and Dad here. The wages of Mum and Dad barely cover the cost of living.

@PhotoDad You did bloody brilliant to secure that, fair play to you.

The way its going in some locations students are having to defer for a year and some cheeky landlords are upping rents and gazumping because demand is so high. Remember as well that this year numbers are up due to many that didn't go last year due to covid.

We paid the accommodation, they lived off the loan and worked. They worked all summer, and they worked a couple of evenings or weekends.

@Waspo a min wage job p/t in the terms and more hours during the very long holidays would earn the £5k a year shortfall/ top up mentioned by the OP assuming your DC only qualifies for the minimum maintenance loan. There’s also free student overdrafts of up to £1500 typically which many use during the student years to stretch their income. It’s very doable.

and yes there’s “debt” (although it’s not really a debt) but the additional earning capacity outweighs that. The harsh reality is that even entry level jobs that could be done by bright school leavers require a degree these days and there’s no shortage of graduates to fill these roles.

I hope your DC finds a way to achieve their aim of further study

I did six years of dental school - we had 10 to a kitchen in halls with shared toilets and tiny delapidated rooms with a half size wardrobe where you would sit on the bed to work at the desk on the opposite wall. Honestly it was fine. I also had a job even though the course was full time 9-5 (with commutes across London and no long uni holidays) - your teens will survive!

Our DD graduated in 2018, she was costing us £7200 a year in top ups and couldn’t do a PT job easily due to placement and working 50% of the time in an NHS setting.

I think it’s a bit different because in the US everyone knows college is expensive and saves from when their children are little. Here it’s different. DS1 is going off next year but when I went it was free and I also got a grant for living. We therefore didn’t really think about it until recently.

@Richielogic I gave dd an allowance of around £100 per week and it was up to her what she spent it on. As you know, there are halls in Bristol that are well over £8000. My dd had exams and assignments and used her room at university in the holidays as that enabled her to use the university library and see her friends. I paid for extras such as contact lenses travel. In second year it is not cheaper as there are utilities and a deposit to pay on top of rent.

There can be a huge gap in the maintenance loan and living costs and dd has friends who have struggled.

We pay accommodation for our two (approx £6000 and £8000 respectively) and still pay mobile contracts but nothing else, they both live very comfortably on the minimum loan £4200 (not London). We ran it through the UCAS budget calculator and there's a fair bit there for socialising etc. we've been very clear they're not getting any more from us, both had jobs over the summer which DC1 will spend on her shopping habit and DC2 will save.
It is scandalous that the loans don't cover accommodation but £200 a week for food and extras seems ridiculous to me.

I hate that parental income is factored in. My parents earned well over the threshold but chose not to financially contribute when I went to uni (they could have afforded it). Their choice of course, I mean it's their money, but it seemed unfair that as an adult I was assessed on parental income when they had no intention of being involved. Had I done a degree with more hours I'd have had to drop out because I wouldn't have been able to work as well.

This is exactly what happened to me.

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

I had zero help past Christmas of 1st year when the monthly food shop money from my parents stopped coming in. I was on a 4 year degree.

I worked. Bar / front of house shifts at a local venue, all weekends and a couple of evenings. Also managed to fit a few students around afternoon lectures - I tutored my degree specialism + one of my native languages. Tutoring can pay up to £50 an hour - you do a couple of those and that’s the weekly budget done.

I couldn’t apply for a maintenance loan (EU student so only tuition fees available) but I had a £4-6k grant from uni each year, so comparable to a UK student who gets a partial loan.

I lived in halls during year 1, nothing fancy. Then moved into a house share with 4 other friends, where rent reduced considerably.

I didn’t go to uni for a decent living space like I had at home, or for a relaxing schedule that would allow me to make lots of friends and have a great social life and discover myself etc. I went there to learn something and prepare for adult life, which in my case will always involve lots of hard work. So I went with the right expectations and the knowledge that I’d have to work a lot more than my peers who might’ve had parental support. It didn’t do me any harm.

I'm mid 30's so appreciate things might be different. I paid for my accommodation from my loan and had a job.

Worked full time in the run up to going so had some savings, PT during term-time and full time in holidays.

It never even occurred to my parents that they were in any way responsible for supporting me. They had no clue on what it cost or how I would pay for anything. It was all on me.

We had the same with our son and our daughter is just finishing her degree. The costs are ridiculous, I think it all depends on where the University is also. Some town centres have many more jobs. The current economic climate is impacting and maybe other adults with financial strain are taking those jobs or the businesses aren’t hiring as many people

I think that a lot of parents don't understand the system until it's too late to save. Because I work in a school it's something I deal with regularly. Similarly with what the expected parental contributions are, i.e. topping-up to maximum loan. (Until this year this wasn't even mentioned on the student loan letters and it's still not very clear.) How do we spread awareness of this?

It is shocking that accommodation prices are generally so high. My DD deliberately chose a tiny room (luckily she's only small herself!) but the variation in prices needs to be flagged up sooner when kids are selecting unis. It's appalling that some places can force students into rooms which take up the entire maximum loan just in rent.

The way that incomes are assessed is also not fit for purpose as PP have said.

I'll add that my real worry is for DD's placement year. She's hoping to go into a field where unpaid or nominal-salary internships are fairly common, so we're crossing our fingers that she'll be paid properly for the year. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I'm dreading this. We earn bang on the threshold for a minimum loan, and while we're not struggling currently the idea of an additional 5k (minimum) annually, with the possibility that my two DC will have a year's overlap with two at uni makes me feel ill. Of course we'll do it but I don't know how, and both H and I are likely to seek overtime.

The worst bit is having to tell DC1 that the likes of UCL and King's are off limits, as she won't be able to afford to live in London.

For those asking about cheaper accommodation options, at the universities local to me you can express preferences but these are not always honoured. Again, I'm dreading her being allocated ensuite, even though I know she'll be applying for the 1970s grotty ones.

I'm from Dublin I lived at home throughout uni as did the vast majority of my friends. Moving out was not possible. I think if you have a decent uni near your parents there is no reason not to.

Also and all my friends are responsible grown up adults.

The issue is accommodation costs have changed as the offering has changed, that’s not the students fault. Most of the halls are en-suite, my DS chose all the cheapest options but got offered an expensive room, he didn’t really have a choice. I have also heard Manchester Uni hasn’t got enough rooms so is paying travelling costs for students to live away from campus. A COVID and probably greedy university problem.
due to COVID around our area there have only been jobs this summer really, so not much opportunity to get a nest egg.
We have saved over the years, so we are fine, but I feel very sorry for any student with little support or parents caught in the trap of OP.

My DC’s accommodation varies from
just below average to just above. We didn’t get to hung up on the first year accommodation as my DC viewed it mostly as a good opportunity to meet friends rather than having to have top of the range accommodation.
I worked it out is cost us £500 per month for per DC for 12 months a year. One graduated last year and one the year before. So 6k a year. They both got the minimum maintenance loan.
Mostly they shared a kitchen with four others, one did share a massive kitchen with 7 others but a bathroom with just one other.
The most important thing seemed to be if they got on with the housemates rather than en-suites etc.

I had to wait until I was 25 to go to uni. I was estranged from parents so now way of getting parental input for finance, or even getting them to fill in that side of the form, or even to write a letter saying they had nothing to do with my finances. And if it had gone off their income I would have got the lowest amount and nothing from them and couldn't have afforded to go. Back then 25 was when the unilaterally discounted you parents income. I think it's 21 now. I'm years behind with my career compared to others my age and I'll never catch up, I actually even get forgotten about at work because I'm not in the same age bracket as those who I'm at the same career stage with so they progress faster than me as they get all the opportunities. The whole financial system for funding HE is broken and always has been.

The thing is, in order to get those lucrative bums on seats universities have upped their accommodation games to the point that it is verging on unaffordable. Can you imagine an open day showing the type of accommodation we had in the 1980s? Mine was an old RAF block, 12 to a corridor, who shared a couple of bathrooms and a kitchen. It's become an arms race which parents are forced to fund.
And to the old Cassandras who say 'why can't the students work in the holidays?' Well most do, but it barely touches the sides.

My DD's university offered "first come first served" where the student selects from a list of all the rooms that are available once booking opened in February, and is then guaranteed that room. I know this is unfair in different ways to the 'options' system but it was a selling-point in deciding where to go and a factor in applying/deciding early.

We paid £350 month for the eldest luckily that Uni didn't have any accommodation let alone rip off accommodation. We also paid her mobile bill.

It will probably be more expensive with the younger one as she has disabilities that require her to be nearer to her studies.

I have absolutely no idea why LOANS to ADULTS are means-tested on their parents ! The entire system is barking mad.

On the basis that it's a LOAN that the student pays back - why not just give every student access to the full loan ?

It's like they have taken the grant system and made it a loan with the same qualifications to receive it. But crucially this is not free money and therefore quite rightly means tested .. it's a bloody loan !