to start getting a bit worried about the cost of university, and to ask how much other people contribute to their children's living costs at university?

[Get0rf]

I know it is not an aibu but I can't really think what topic to put it in.

DD is 16 and in thinking about her university costs, I just wondered what other people contributed. Do people pay their rent and give them an allowance?

Not just the poorest will be deterred from taking degrees.
We are not rich but not poor either. While nothing will put DS1 off, DS2 is already making noises about not going to uni because of the debt.

DD will borrow the £9k for tuition fees.

She will get the minimum £3500 living costs loan to pay for food, travel, clothes, stationery, toiletries, going out etc.

We will pay her hall in the first year (maybe approx £3500-£6500 depending on which hall/ which university) and then her rent in subsequent years (hopefully a bit cheaper).

I don't want her to work in term time - I want her to concentrate on her studies (she's applied for dentistry) and enjoy her time there but she will work during the holidays (she's had a job since she was sixteen and they have already said they can be flexible about her coming back in her holidays) and this money will top her up and pay for any big treats like a festival or a holiday.

Someone else made the same point to me recently as ilovemydog that kids from a "poorer" background may be able to take all of the extra means-tested allowances and bursaries on top of the full living costs loan and "richer" kids may be given generous allowances from their parents. That it's the ones in the middle who may find they have the least money at university.

It's all going to be a new thing for our kids' generation - these huge loans - we'll have to watch and see how it all pans out. Both of my kids want to go into jobs that require then to have a particular degree but I can understand why some people in marginal situations might be put off if they're not sure what they want to do or they don't actually "need" a degree.

Looking back, it was a privilege to have free tertiary education. We didn't appreciate it at the time.

My DD has just finished her first term at uni. She gets the usual loans/bursaries.

Before she went I bought her lots of clothes, toilettries etc so she was well stocked up. She wants to learn to budget her own money and has no expectation that I will give her an allowance. When she was waiting for her bursary to come in December I sent her a £50 Asda food card as she had run out of food and money. I also pay her train fare home.

She has a student overdraft and is overdrawn by £500 so far. She tells me that most of her friends at uni get sent money on a regular basis by their parents whenever they ask for it. However she feels she has grown up a lot in the last few months and has come to realise that money doesn't last long if you keep visiting Top Shop.

It is correct as is being said on here that it is the ones in the middle income group that are most affected, those that are not rich enough to not give a thought to helping their children through Uni and those who are poor enough to qualify for all the grants/loans available.

I really do not understand this 'they are now adults why should they have any help' - do you throw your children out of the door at 18 and tell them they are on their own.

IME experience the tuition fee situation does not come into it -the student loan covers this and is paid back when they hit the threshold. But the maintenance grants are not really enough to cover rent and all other expenses and this is where the student needs some back up, and if you can afford to pay some of this why would you not. I paid a fixed weekly amount
and my son quickly learned to budget. There are some areas where there is very little, if any , work available, and some courses where the load is so heavy that work is impracticle.

What may also have to be considered is the cost of a Masters, where fees have to be paid from 'own/household income' and where there are no maintenance loans available. This really restricts this area of education to those who are fortunate enough to have the wherewithall to pay for it.

My son is just starting a 2 year Msc in Physiotherapy in Scotland, where fees are charged and the course is squashed into 2 years of 48 weeks, leaving very little scope for outside earnings. Whilst I am in a position where I can pay for this (and our DS will repay us, when he starts working) I dread to think what would have happened if we could not have paid - it would most likely have meant he was unable to take the course.