Going to a non-Scottish university

[Scotuni]

Our DD is going into S4 and I’m belatedly thinking about her future.. We earn over £35k so I know we would be able to apply for a maintenance loan of £4750 if she went to a Scottish University. But would we get this loan amount if she went to an English/Welsh/N.Irish University?

We are not financially in a good position (no savings/large debt after a period of unemployment) but on paper earning a good annual salary. I know ideally she should stay at home and go to a local uni but both my partner and I think that being a student is as much about learning to live independently and flying the nest as it is about studying. We both left our home cities in England and lived 100 miles from home.

I know we would have to get a loan for the fees in England/Wales N.Ire but is there a limit on the amount of money you can get in a loan for maintenance and accommodation? Or is there a cap and the expectation that parents provide the shortfall? Is the figure of £4750 maintenance only applicable for Scottish students who study in Scotland ie. if you choose an English uni it’s a whole other funding/loan system.

We’ve been burying our heads in the sand about this and I’ve been reading all the threads about how much people have saved for their kid’s future study. Have got myself in a state thinking about it all. This is my first step in trying to face up to the reality of it all.

Just seen this thread

I'm not sure if this helps anyone, but my DS (state-schooled and Scottish) is heading off to Oxford this October to read law.

He has tuition fee and living costs loan from SAAS. His course is only three years long, so some of this extra cost is mitigated by a year less living costs and very cheap college accommodation for the duration of his degree. He will start earning a year earlier as well which may, in theory, cover his extra tuition fees. We hope his Oxford degree may lead to a better paid job, but who knows?

It's what he wants to do and we will do our best to support him.

Aurea that’s great - congrats to your DS. Good point about the 3 years vs 4 years too. Excuse my ignorance but are accommodation and living costs considerably less than at your average Scottish University? I hope you don’t mind me asking but did the SAAS lend you the whole amount of the tuition fees and then the standard maximum that they would lend you for living costs if you went to a Scottish University? I don’t know whether any child of mine would be aiming for Oxbridge but always good to know the lay of the land just in case

Thanks Scotuni!

The living costs are cheap IMHO. The college accommodation for the duration of his course costs £4000 a year but he needs to vacate his room in the holidays although they offer vacation storage for free. The rooms are often large and in old buildings. They also clean the rooms for this price. All the college food is subsidised. A restaurant quality, three course meal for £3-4. Each college will vary their fees though. Many have generous bursaries and his own college provide all books free of charge for his course and free colour printing.

He has the full tuition fees paid plus a living cost loan calculated on your household income (as per normal). This is all at the same rates and terms as Scottish students.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Aurea. Useful information. Also love to hear of state school Scottish kids doing well 😄

I agree with Aurea. If your child Has to / wants to go to rUK to uni, the cheapest places are Oxford and Cambridge.

London is very expensive, travel and living costs are very high.

Of course it’s up to them if they want to take on the extra debt, if they feel it’s worth it because the course is very specialised. Or they don’t get a suitable offer from a Scottish uni.

Agree with Olga on relative affordability of Oxford and Cambridge. They also have similar ratios of International students to Scottish Ancients at around 40%. London Universities such as UCL and Imperial are over 50% International (LSE and SOAS are even higher). This can start to have an impact on socialising and also teaching focus. The social aspect is exacerbated because London Universities are not campus based in the way that Oxford / Cambridge are. Many of the UK students will be London / Home Counties locals and therefore they won't necessarily integrate outside their existing networks.

@howabout makes a good point about socialising. I have to say that I cannot understand the overwhelming popularity of London universities in general in MN.

Yes, for some specific subjects/ institutions they have some excellent, sometimes world leading, courses. That will of course be VERY hard to get into.

But your average student doing a run of the mill course at an average university will pay a fortune on rent, waste hours and a lot of cash on travel and probably live an hour away from there friends, making socialising very hard.

I think a lot of the push for London unis comes from south east parents who are afraid of their children moving away where they can’t control them. I suspect many of them haven’t travelled much away from their locality so anything outside the Home Counties seems very frightening to them.

It’s a shame for their children as they are held back in their ambitions. And for those who are applying for very competitive course such as medicine, they end up only applying for courses where the applicant to place ratio is much higher.

We recently employed a young woman as a graduate trainee in a very very specialised and hard to get into field ( there are about 10 similar positions in the entire Uk each year at most ). She quit after about 8 months because her family were pressuring her to move back near to her home.

This pressure because impossible to resist after a grandparent died, she felt she had to move home to look after her 50 something (non disabled) parents.

It’s very sad when these helicopter parents can’t let their kids go and lead their own lives. And it seems even worse for daughters .

Aurea DD went to boarding school in Oxford for two years. It's a lovely city and the college buildings are great. Your DS will have a great time there