Student Loans 2012

Lokolo

setmefree2 wrote: »

I really do give up!!!

I get it you - don't want my son to get any money, even if he has nothing to live on. Fine. I understand. Let us just leave it there? Please?

Nooooo, I already said at the beginning of the thread how much I think you should give him to be OK, I just don't think you should give him too much and not him learn about budgeting, student loans etc.

setmefree2

Lokolo wrote: »

Nooooo, I already said at the beginning of the thread how much I think you should give him to be OK, I just don't think you should give him too much and not him learn about budgeting, student loans etc.

For me, whether I give my kids £3k or £4k is not really that important. It misses the bigger picture. For example, when you buy a house often the interest you pay on the mortgage is nearly as much as the amount you pay for the house.

So if you buy a house for £100,000 at 5% for 25 years it will cost £175,377 in total, at 6% the same house will cost you £193,290. If you reduce the repayments to 10 years at 5% it will cost you just £127,279.

So whether I give my son this amount or that amount is almost irrelevant. Getting the financing right is the most important thing imho.

melancholly

i wouldn't hold much hope of Offa doing all that much to 'curb' excessive fees about £6000 (which means enough fees for unis to stay in the black - Oxford thinks that's at least £8000!) - they haven't used any of their power since 2004 in relation to universities improving access. i think they are about as useful as the FSA!! which is a shame! any quota for 'state school' access will be meaningless anyway, since a large proportion of 'state school' students at top unis come through the grammar system which doesn't really represent a 'poorer' background. it's all smoke and mirrors with the statistics about it and the focus is now on free school meals students (which makes much more sense). no doubt that will change to suit someone's agenda!

if they want to make sure access is for students with potential, rather than with students with the top grades, then i can only see that that will happen with more interviews for admission. i don't think that's a bad thing at all, but it is much more time consuming and i imagine a right pain for unis who get about 15 applicants per place!

the whole system needs a change.... not one part of it. it's needs a considered, long term plan and this overnight fees change is a half-arsed attempt to do something - something important and needed, but something that needs a comprehensive solution, which this certainly isn't. a government committed to openning access wouldn't have cut funding for access schemes!


fwiw, i think much of the 'hostility' is more perceived than actual and has certainly come from both sides..... there have been very aggressive responses to posts which just ramps things up, which doesn't help. i just wish more students/graduates were informed about the loans system (yet another post today on the loans board not understanding repayments). i don't really care if they get it explained by their school, their parents or just google it and go to the SLC website to read it through. the information has been there on a plate on the direct.gov website for the existing system but so many people haven't read it....

my concern has always been students signing a form without understanding anything about it because they were just told to do it. that's not about being negative to all parents or to parents who offer any sort of help, and it shouldn't be interpreted as such. parents helping their children know what the implications of a loan are is great; 18 year olds not having a clue is bad! i think i said this weeks ago; on this board we see so so so so many graduates without a clue that that influences our opinions. i doesn't make the opinions 'wrong' - just coming from a different perspective (perhaps a 'worst case scenario' one, but blimey, that worst case happens too often). in the same way as most issues, seeing things from all sides is usually a good thing!

(i.e. can we all kiss and make up? there's no point parents being 'scared' to post and there's equally no point being completely unreceptive to any difference in opinion - from anyone)

jennifernil

This is how it works up here in Scotland, if you live away from home.....

http://www.student-support-saas.gov.uk/student_support/scottish_inside/2001_or_later/financial_support.htm

and this shows how the support varies for students living at home.....

http://www.student-support-saas.gov.uk/student_support/scottish_inside/student_loan.htm

When our daughter went to Uni she qualified only for the equivalent of todays "non income assessed" £915 loan, which would not have gone very far! We were expected to contribute the rest of the £5067, which is presumably how much a student is supposed to need to live on here.

Personally, I don't think £5067 is enough. So a student getting the full recommended support from parents + the minimum loan will still need a job to top up their income.

As I said in an earlier post, we provided our daughter with housing and an allowance + books. This we did by buying a small flat with a spare room for a flatmate. This kept the effective cost to us down to about £3600 for the flat, £1600 allowance, £100 or so for books, so about £5300 per annum. The rest came from her part-time term-time job and full-time summer job. She seemed to live quite well on that.

She did not take any loan, we discussed it, she thought of taking it and saving it, but in the end she decided it was just too much hassle trying to figure out how to repay it afterwards so as not to incur interest.

There were of course also a few extra "benefits" provided, such as bringing home washing, free bed and board over summer if desired, and coming on a (paid for) holiday with us if she wanted to!

The flat has turned out to be a good idea as her original 5 year degree went on to become a 4 year + 3 year PhD, so lots saved on rent, and a good standard of accommodation guaranteed. Plus only a 5 minute walk to Uni.

We have no fees to pay up here of course, meantime. At the time she started we had the "graduate endowment" which meant she would have had about £2200 to repay after graduation, but this was abolished the year she graduated, about the only good bit of timing in our "financial" life !!

If there had been fees of £6000-£9000 per year, we would probably have managed to cover most of that, but only by digging into our savings, or delaying our retirement, or not buying a new car.......or probably all three!
I think she would have had to contribute too though, so she would not have nearly so much in savings as she has now.

When her older brother was at Uni, there were no fees, no loans, only grants and parental contributions. He stayed at home and commuted, and had well paid summer jobs, and a generous grandmother, so left Uni with no debt. So we thought it was only fair that she started out debt free too. I must say however that she has worked a lot harder than he did, in his day very few students worked in term-time.

setmefree2......if you can afford to help your children, then go for it. It sounds like your son has a good grip on financial matters and will appreciate your help. Don't be too generous though, have him do his bit too!

setmefree2

Thanks for your post Jennifer. It's great to know what other parents have done. I don't think I'll be buying a flat but it must be great to know that your daughter is living somewhere nice and not living student squalor (do students still live in squalor?).

setmefree2

From this morning newpapers. This is what I found in the Guardian Re fees

This may mean that universities which already have a broad social mix – typically, the newer universities – could be curbed from charging high fees. However, Willetts said that universities tackling problems such as high drop-out rates could also justify higher fees.

He said that high fees could lead to further cuts to the higher education budget. "If they all charge £9,000, one consequence could be, as the student loan bill rises, off-setting savings elsewhere in the HE budget might be a consequence."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/10/offa-access-widened-university

setmefree2

From the Telegraph (this one's a couple of days old.)

Average tuition fees 'likely to be almost £7k a year'

By Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the University and College Union 6:30AM GMT 09 Feb 2011

The University and College Union (UCU) has discovered that every single English institution with undergraduates will have to charge more than £6,000 just to plug the funding gap created by huge cuts to teaching budgets.

The average fee will need to be £6,863.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8312419/Average-tuition-fees-likely-to-be-almost-7k-a-year.html

The_One_Who

setmefree2 wrote: »

Thanks for your post Jennifer. It's great to know what other parents have done. I don't think I'll be buying a flat but it must be great to know that your daughter is living somewhere nice and not living student squalor (do students still live in squalor?).

In terms of university accommodation, the ensuite rooms tend to be filled up first, despite them being incredibly expensive in comparison to those with shared bathrooms, never mind in comparison to rooms in the private sector.

Taiko

Vested interest, maybe?

setmefree2

Taiko wrote: »

Vested interest, maybe?

Is that directed to any poster in particular?