Cost of University

GenuinelyHonest

My son will heading off to university in September 2010. With the uncertainty of fees and loans I realise that I will have to contibute to this.

My ex earns 3 times as much as me, he has remarried and owns two houses both mortgaged. I am single and own a house.

We both agree that we should contribute to university costs but cannot agree on the split. He feels it should be 50/50 whereas I feel it should be a 75/25 split based on our individual incomes ie excluding anything his new partner should earn.

Does anyone have any experience of this or any views?

SuziQ

I am a single parent and my daughter started Uni last September. She got the full grant plus maximum loans for Fees and accomodation. After that was paid she has just over £300 to live on for the year.

This is on the current fees/loans arrangement. I personally feel this is unlikely to change when elections will be coming up!

Some Unis will give bursaries etc so there might be a difference depending on where your child goes and what they do.

My daughter manages on around £20 a week for food term time,she has spent around £170 this year on books and stationary (she is studying Law) has had a field trip to pay for,then the inevitable social life! Currently her dad gives her about £100 a week term time (occasioally he misses if he can't manage it-we are divorced and I have no idea re his income etc,he has never paid any maintenance ).

Holidays she comes home and I feed her etc,plus I build up groceries for her to take back at the start of every term and occasionally top her phone up.

The amount you will contribute is not going to be a huge amount of money-my daughter really could manage on £50 a week-which would mean £100 a month for you if did 50:50.

There is no law about this and you will need to agree what you can afford to give and so will he,your son will then have to budget like every other student I'm afraid.He may be lucky to get a job which will help enormously.

If the current rules re fees etc changes then it may well be that an assessment process will be introduced which will sort the argument for you! It's impossible this far ahead to second guess this issue,and I think it will be hard for you to force your ex to do what would appear to be morally right.

GenuinelyHonest

Thanks SuziQ I'm glad to know its possible.

My son is hoping to study vet science so I have five years to get through and the extras may be higher - still if he doesn't improve his exam grades then he won't make vet science and will just do a three year course.

Its all up to him - scary!

Mr_Green_Genes

Why not just give what you can and don't bother about what you think he can afford. That's how it works for me. I am paying a reasonable (in terms of what I can afford) amount towards my daughter's costs (did the same for my son) and I neither know nor care what the former Mrs GG is paying (if anything at all).

SuziQ

GH-my daughters course is 4 years (one in spain at Uni) then she will have to do a years Law conversion course here plus a years conversion in spain if she wants to practice out there! They are advised to do this straight after Uni as if not most people don't go back and do it-so like you,I am in for the long haul!

At the moment she is looking at around £32,000 debt for Uni,£10-15,000 fees for each conversion and the expense of supporting herself through the 2 years conversion.

It absolutely terrifies me but what can they do? If they want the qualification they have no choice but to incurr the debt if ther are from an ordinary family.

GenuinelyHonest

SuziQ what uni is your daughter studying at? The choice for vet science is so limited - we can't even keep the accomodation costs down as all are fairly expensive.

Good luck anyway hope all goes well!

SuziQ

Hi GH, she is at Kent Canterbury. The accomodation is beautiful but £5,000 a year! It is a lovely campus,great pastoral care and such a beautiful place-I love visiting her and her grad ceremony will be in Canterbury cathedral,which she can see from her kitchen window on campus.

When you see how happy they are it all seems worth it. She has blossomed and matured even in the 6 months she has been there. We went and visited Unis even where they didn't do the exact course she wanted to do,so that we could get a good 'feel' of the different choices-it's vey important that they feel happy where they are.
I found the application process/waiting for offers etc more traumatic than the exams which she took in her stride. Vet science is extremely popular and difficult to get onto so I am assuming your son is one of the brightest sparks? If he wants info and to get his head around everything,tell him to get onto www.thestudentroom.co.uk if he hasn't already. There are reviews and info on all the different Unis and courses and you can ask existing students advice which is invaluable. My daughter 'met' a girl on there that coincidentally ended up sharing her flat on campus-great for her as she had a ready-made friend from day one.
Vet science is fantastic-in fact for 4 years before she changed to languages and law that was what she wanted to do,but in the end she decided it was too 'physical' for her (she is 5ft 2 and 8 stone!)and she wouldn't be able to put animals to sleep!

Slopalongplacidly

I think you are so fortunate that your ex has been contributing up to this point. My own has ducked and dived (always managing to get to rugby internationals and the pub, though) and owes seven years' payments to the CSA. My son is now in his second year at Edinburgh, a notoriously expensive city, and not one penny has his father paid toward his education, not even as far as giving him a tenner for his Freshers Week.