How am I going to be able to fund 2 DDs through university?

[NigellaTheUndomesticGoddess]

Just realised this is going to be expected in 6 years from now!
How do i do it? do i start saving into some sort of account? if so which one?
and DD1 has decided she wants to be a doctor which means 7 years studying!!!!!
what on earth do i do?

Oh and as she started before the fees went up. Thy have only been 1500 a year. we have 2 more who want to go to university so that will cost us even more.Dh and I did both open ISA's so that we could save for this, But we still don't know how we will fund the next 2 children.

Could you disown them?

Move to Poland or similar then you will be poorly paid and won't they be eligable for lots of extra financial help?

(This post is tongue in cheek BTW)

I am not going to fund my kids through university (if they want to go) because if they really want to do it they will work and save and get into debt the way I did and they will learn valuable lessons along the way about hard work, commitment and responsibility.

Amen.

Not saying I wont help out at all - if I can afford to I might help then out now and again but they will not be expecting me to fund them throught it.

I went to uni when fees were paid, and got a grant of £1,600per year. I borrowed the max student load allowed of £1,000 and £200 from my bank (the max allowed). People who say you can 'borrow' are showing their ignorance. You couldn't even pay your rent with £2,800 then, and there WAS noone to lend more.

I had to get a job, but as it was a student town, there was mass unemployment due to all the students working for hardly anything. I got a job at McDonalds and did every available shift (At £3.00 per hour), missing many of my lectures simply to afford to pay my rent.

In the end I left and was in debt! I spent a year depressed and let down by the Gov and my parents.

My Grandma left me £1k in her will. I started 2 Open University courses with the money. Although I was supposed to be studying for 36 hours per week, it wasn't recognised as a full-time course by the student loans company, and since I wasn't signing on, I couldn't 'prove' that I wasn't earning. There followed extremely nasty interactions with baillifs and debt collectors.

I did eventually get a part-time, and then full-time job alongside my 36 hours study time and it was extremely hard but things worked themselves out!

I think that people/parents need to do the sums. With fees, loans and a job, it is still entirely possible that your children will not have enough to either live on, or to spend the time required to do well on their courses!

BTW: That parents fund uni, cars, pay of debts/loans, deposits for houses etc. only goes to increase the prices of such things imo!

DS1 is at University and DD will be starting in the Autumn.

We give DS1 a smallish monthly allowance - and he gets his maintenance loan, which in the first year didn't even cover the cost of the Halls of Residence, and the Tuition Fee loans. The loans aren't enough on their own to cover the cost of living.

He took a gap year, travelled a bit but mostly worked, which gave him a good pot of money to start with. He doesn't work in term time but whenever he's home works in local pubs and bars, enough to clear his £1000 overdraft facility before he fills it up again when he goes back to Uni. When we can afford to give him more we do, but I know all his Christmas and birthday money goes on overdraft clearing. It's tough, but manageable. I just hope its worth it for him.

When I went to Uni (not in UK) my fees were paid but I got no other grant and loans were not easy to come by. Cost of living seemed to be relatively lower then - especially rent - and I managed by working weekends for spending money and working during the summer holidays and saving as much as possible for rent and food. I didn't get much from my parents and left Uni broke but debt-free.

I think one of the reasons it is more expensive for students these days is that accommodation standards have gone up and so have rents -I doubt if many of them live in houses without heating, tv's, washing machines, etc like we did. Plus there seem to be so many more "essentials" these days like laptops, mobile phones that few of us would probably "want" our dcs to do without.... and how many students run cars now? It all adds up....

I went to university in the 80s and it was free, all free. Plus a grant because my father was retired. And then another grant when I went on to do something else.

I can't say it was rate-payers' (then it was rates) money well spent, in all honesty. I went to university (albeit a good one) because that was the accepted path.

But things have swung too far the other way now. Someone whose parents have a modest income has to pay full whack, even if they are incredibly bright and want to study, say, medicine, yet another student will get their further education free, plus grant, if they are from a low-income home and want to do leisure studies at the University of the Former Technical College.

not solely your responsibility -yes you can contribute to help out, but DD can get loans, get a student job whilst at uni.live frugally it can be done. i worked my way through uni

medicine is a good career choice.unfortunately most students incur huge debts upon graduation

Financial support for students on degree courses in medicine

You can do it for nothing. They can live at home and then they just have the fees which you don't pay anyway until you start earning thus the immediate cost is zero except you feed them at home. That's one way to do it.

A second way to do it is our more expensive way - I paid their fees (three are there now, daughter 1 is in her 5th year although she got the fees paid for the last 2 years by her future employer in the end) and daughter 2 is about to start year 4. I pay them £100 a week and I pay the rent and they live here in holidays. That cost is about £10k a year whch is virtually idential to the school fees I have bene paying for the last 13 years for them each so it's not a different cost, much of the same although I will be glad when it's all over.

Landlords of student accomodation rarely allow term-time contracts. They nearly always demand rent for 52 weeks ime!

Nothing to make someone value their education more than steeping up with a bit of the cash to pay for it!! I worked for a year in an office before Uni and that cemented the idea that I really wanted an education!!

Going to your local university is fine if you happen to live in Headington.

In fact that would be interesting, nay, mind-boggling, if everyone was forced to attend the nearest establishment.

No-one gets it free nowadays, even if their parents have a low income. We all leave uni with debts for fees, loans etc. unless we are lucky enough to have parents willing and able to support us through our education. I think there is a better deal in Wales and Scotland, with no top-up fees, and more grants, which seems incredibly unfair. Instead of saving a deposit for a house on graduating, most people are too busy trying to get out of debt, at least for the first few years. And the interest on the loan is not as good as the government likes to make out. Oh dear, that got me started!

Stepping

'personally if my children want to do a degree that doesn't lead to a profession (like what I did) AND it isn't at a redbrick university then I would talk them out of it and send them to work ... I think a lot of higher education is totally devalued'

Totally agree with you Twiglett.

interesting. and somewhat scary.

DD1 has finished Uni; DS1 has dropped out and DS2 is going in September.

The parental income limit has gone up massively this year. It was about £30k but this year it's over £60k Means that unlike his brother and sister DS2 will actually get a small grant as well as loans.

They get a loan for their fees (£3145 this year) plus a maintenance loan of another £4k ish. Rent varies= my elder 2 paid about £60-70 a week for 30 weeks.

So all things being equal they should have enough money provided they either work full time the summer holiday before they go or work weekends throughout their course.

Our contribution is £100s of pounds in fuel taking them there and back with all their stuff each term, plus providing all the stuff they need to take with them.

Never crosses my mind. I'll worry about it when the time comes.

I'll encourage them to think about the job they want to do so they're on their way to earning a reasonable living.

We've been saving for our two - £100 a month, which they will be able to use to avoid getting massively into debt hopefully. In order to save, we have compromised on other things - especially foreign travel (having our first foreign holiday since they were born, this year - dd1 is now 13!).

I wish my parents contributed to my time at uni. To be fair, in the scheme of things it's not THAT hard to work and study at the same time (althought if anyone thinks that 12 hours contact time is all the work students do, they're deluded, I, and most others, put in 30-35 hours a week). I am rather bitter, though, to have to work when few others do. I can rarely visit home because I have to work all weekend, and I don't get a day off all week, let alone a whole weekend!

On the other hand, I am independent in all senses of the word and don't have to go begging to my parents or bow to their opinions on what I should do.

I think many of them do live fairly frugally. I know mine buys value brands at the supermarket, walks everywhere, sells on Ebay etc. Obvoiusly some are better off than others.

Isn't this thread all about how important it is for women to work and pick high paid careers because if they did they could then afford to put their children through university but if they indulge themselves and become impoverished artists or work behind the till in Tesco or heaven forbid become a housewife then you can't afford to help your children at university?

I agree that they can go it alone.
As parents we help them out when we can but I do not feel that I need to pay for them to go to uni