Student Accommodation problem, advice needed

amandathepanda

My daughter is at Uni in Carlisle and we live in Newcastle, she is in her first year. Well before she started we enquired and asked how many hours a week she would be at Uni, so that we knew whether she should communte or take the accommodation. We were told it was a full on course and that she would be in lectures most days, apart from the 2 lots of 6 weeks when she is in placement at a hospital.
She is now coming to the end of the first year and my daughter took a student loan towards the cost of the accommodation which was over £3500. In reality the most she is there is 2 lectures per week, and a return train ticket is only £12. She was having a lot of bother sleeping in the accommodation as most of the flatmates in her flat are absolute party animals and she was getting little sleep, so she decided to move back home. Does anyone have any advise, do you think it would make any difference if we wrote to the Uni. I think it's a little unfair to get students to sign up for that much debt when should could have quite easily commuted 2 days per week.

Taiko

None at all. If she's old enough for university, she's old enough to make her own decisions.

ciderwithrosie_2

When you fill in the finance forms for the 2nd year it asks where you'll be living so if you say at home it will assess you on that. I don't think you'll get a refund on the first year.

Kaleidoscope27

You won't be refunded. It was your daughter's choice to stay in halls and she signed a contract to say she'll have the room for the year. She could drop out and still have to pay for the room.

Learn from it and next year have her stay at home and commute. So she'll come away with £3,500 of debt. I think a lot of students now are walking away with up to £30,000.

amandathepanda

Taiko wrote: »

None at all. If she's old enough for university, she's old enough to make her own decisions.

Of course she is old enough to make her own decisions, I do not run her life for her, but she asked for my advice, and as a parent I do think it is wrong for the Uni to say she will be in lectures every day when in reality it is 2 lectures a week. If she had been given the correct information from the Uni in the first place she would not have signed up to a £3500 contract when she could have commuted costing £1000.

busiscoming2

OP I too am a mum of kids who have been and are going through uni. I have read your post twice and it seems to me you have not suggested asking for a refund. I think if you wrote to them pointing out your concerns it wouldn't make any difference, after all the unis get the money from the accomodation, dont they? As for her flatmates being noisy, that is just a part of uni life and anyone at uni has probably had to put up with 'problems' from others of one sort or another.
A lot of youngsters choose to stay in halls to gain independence and embrace uni life to the full. Some of my kids peers went to a local uni and stayed at home and with hindsight they may have saved money, but they have missed out on some life skills and fun!

Mankysteve

Do they not have wardens at the uni halls. Mine did and they dealt with noise problems quite well. I suspect that your daughter should have complained more at the time. No she won't get anything back.

edsks

If your daughter is on a nursing course then I am very surprised she has such few class contact hours each week. Nursing degrees are accredited by the nursing and midwifery council and I know that they are more "strict" than many other professional bodies about hours of study and attendance.
On another point even if your daughter had such small number of hours class contact time (which I really can't believe) then these are only the "teaching" hours associated to the course of study. Your daughter, as a full-time student, should be putting in a great many more "learning" hours (reading around the subjects, preparing for lectures, following up lectures, tutorials, researching for and doing assignments/assessment tasks etc) and at least some of this, I would imagine would require your daughter to access university resources, for example the learning centres and IT facilities (although I appreciate that some of this could be done from your home via the internet).

amandathepanda

She is doing a Radiography degree, and she does do a lot of self study, as she is a very dedicated student. I was just trying to get across the point that the Uni should not be advising people that the course is a full time one.Therefore as living in Newcastle, my daughter thought the most sensible option would be to get a loan of £3500 to cover the cost, only then to find out it is 2 lectures a week, and she could have easily commuted saving over £2000.She has access to all the learning resources that she needs at the local hospital library/learning centre. I think she is going to speak to the Uni about it, just so that they are aware of the implications for future students.

poet123

A full time course in FE and (much less in HE) can be as little 13 hours per week, so perhaps it is your understanding of the term that is the issue here.

Having had 3 sons go through Uni I sympathise, but really cannot see where you have any redress.

Oldernotwiser

Independent study is what university is about; the fact that she has only a couple of hours of lectures has nothing to do with it, she'll have needed access to the library and other resources to study successfully