Will our contribution be enough?

Alikay

I need a bit of advice from current university students/their parents about our contribution towards our daughter's university cost from September this year.

She has been offered conditional places a 5 uni's, all in other cities/towns, so will live-in, but due to our income she won't qualify for any grants or additional support. We are not incredibly wealthy, just earn a couple of thousand over the limits where any kind of support gets given either from LEA, government or universities themselves. We have a big mortgage and 2 younger children.

Our daughter will just be able to borrow the regular loans for her upkeep and fees, and we plan to give her £3000 a year to supplement this. Will it be enough? She has friends from low-income families who will be getting substantial support from grants etc, and friends from wealthy backgrounds who already have a large wedge of cash in the bank for this purpose. Is there anyone out there from a family like us? How much do your parents help out, and do you cope without having to get a job in term time?

Thanks for any advice

busiscoming2

Hi My daughter is currently in her second year and I know the fees system has changed, she was eligible for about £48 grant last year, so our income is just in the limit. She has had the full loan both years and we made it clear to her before she went that she would have to get a job. It did take her 10 weeks to get one, but she uses the loan to pay for her accomodation and saves the rest. She uses her income to fund food/fun and living expenses. We have two younger boys and have no way of giving her money. We bought her basic stuff (pots etc) and a huge food parcel when she went and that was basically it. She even manages to pay for the upkeep of her car at home! I think it helps that we encouraged a strong work ethic and stopped pocket money at 16, both her and my eldest son (16) got themselves jobs and it was the best thing for them.

Oldernotwiser

Alikay wrote: »

I need a bit of advice from current university students/their parents about our contribution towards our daughter's university cost from September this year.

She has been offered conditional places a 5 uni's, all in other cities/towns, so will live-in, but due to our income she won't qualify for any grants or additional support. We are not incredibly wealthy, just earn a couple of thousand over the limits where any kind of support gets given either from LEA, government or universities themselves. We have a big mortgage and 2 younger children.

Our daughter will just be able to borrow the regular loans for her upkeep and fees, and we plan to give her £3000 a year to supplement this. Will it be enough? She has friends from low-income families who will be getting substantial support from grants etc, and friends from wealthy backgrounds who already have a large wedge of cash in the bank for this purpose. Is there anyone out there from a family like us? How much do your parents help out, and do you cope without having to get a job in term time?

Thanks for any advice

Don't forget that you'll probably be keeping her for nothing in the holidays, so the money she'll have (around £7,000) will only have to cover her for a maximum of 40 weeks. She ought to find £175 per week more than adequate!

Alikay

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Don't forget that you'll probably be keeping her for nothing in the holidays, so the money she'll have (around £7,000) will only have to cover her for a maximum of 40 weeks. She ought to find £175 per week more than adequate!

Well £7000 doesnt sound too bad! I thought she'd be getting less than that. Her rent (if she goes to Durham, her 1st choice) will be about £4000. So you think she'll have enough to cover books, travel (college accom is 1.5 miles from department, and cheapest fare home is £40 with railcard), entertainment, clothes etc? Meals are included -she'd have preferred self-catering, but wasn't accepted in those halls/colleges. We don't want to be giving her any extra, but of course we'll feed her in the holidays!

Oldernotwiser

Alikay wrote: »

Well £7000 doesnt sound too bad! I thought she'd be getting less than that. Her rent (if she goes to Durham, her 1st choice) will be about £4000. So you think she'll have enough to cover books, travel (college accom is 1.5 miles from department, and cheapest fare home is £40 with railcard), entertainment, clothes etc? Meals are included -she'd have preferred self-catering, but wasn't accepted in those halls/colleges. We don't want to be giving her any extra, but of course we'll feed her in the holidays!

That £7,000 does include the £3,000 you said you'd be giving her. On that basis she should have £75 to cover entertainment etc. which doesn't seem to bad. She could also get a Saturday job or a couple of evenings in a pub if she was short. She'll probably only come home a couple of times a term and she could also walk to college if she needed to. Many people of her age who are working would be glad of £75 a week after paying for all their keep.

littlevet1

Hi

I'm in a similar position to your daughter (although I started my course before top-up fees so pay £1200/year up front for tuition whereas your daughter will pay £3000 for each year upon graduation - I think?!).

Anyway, my parents' income means that I do not qualify for any means tested loan and so can only claim the maximum non-mean tested amount. This year it was about £3200 I think. I could also get a tuition fee loan but didn't claim this year.


University fees for accommodation and tuition add up to about £4000. As you can see my loan does not come close to covering this, never mind food, books, travel, etc...!

The university I study at does not allow you to work during term time so a part time job isn't an option for me. Even if I could work, I wouldn't have the time (I'm a veterinary student). Working during holidays is also difficult since I have to do compulsary placements on farms and with vets.

My parents give me an allowance which works out to be £3000 a year. So my total 'income' from loan and parents is £6200 approx. I have to say I find this to be plenty and do not have to worry about money.

So the way I see it for you and your daughter is that if she feels she can work during term and the holidays to earn some cash, then for you to give her £3000 as well.... she'd be rolling in it! However if like me she won't be able to work then I would say £3000 would be more than enough.

Hope this helps!

Alikay

Thanks littlevet - nice to know you're coping well on that sort of income. We don't really want her to work in term time - a degree costs a hell of a lot of money, so we want her to get a good one, not just scrape through because she's working too many hours in a bar. She's planning to do temp office work during the summer though.

Hopefully there will be lots of students with a similar budget to hers - we were a little alarmed at a couple of open days when other parents were asking about car-parking for students, and buying their children houses to share:eek:

We want her to get as much as possible from the experience, which includes learning independance as well as having fun and getting a decent degree. Don't want it to be either a miserable slog for her, or cripplingly costly for the rest of the family!

tr3mor

Alikay wrote: »

Thanks littlevet - nice to know you're coping well on that sort of income. We don't really want her to work in term time - a degree costs a hell of a lot of money, so we want her to get a good one, not just scrape through because she's working too many hours in a bar. She's planning to do temp office work during the summer though.

Hopefully there will be lots of students with a similar budget to hers - we were a little alarmed at a couple of open days when other parents were asking about car-parking for students, and buying their children houses to share:eek:

We want her to get as much as possible from the experience, which includes learning independance as well as having fun and getting a decent degree. Don't want it to be either a miserable slog for her, or cripplingly costly for the rest of the family!

What subject is she intending on studying?

If she has the time it is a very good idea to get a part time job during uni or work full time during the holidays.

After her degree she'll find potential employers much more interested in her if she has experience of work (even if it's just a bar job).

Personally I think 3 years spent doing *just* a degree is a waste of time. There's so many opportunities at university to get work and see the world a bit. (Obviously not applicable to subjects like medicine/vetinary, where the degree includes all the work experience and not much spare time.)

Alikay

She will only be at uni for 29 weeks a year, and her course is pretty heavy with tutorials, lectures etc all with quite early starts - so its a short, but intense academic year. She'd prefer to work full-time in the big summer holidays, as she's been pretty successful with call-centre work before and could earn a reasonable amount in 3 months.

Obviously it would be great if she could travel, but that will be at her own expense. We're giving her £3000 a year to help with her university costs - if she has enough spare to tour Thailand...well, we'll have it back please!

I guess what you're all saying is that £3000 from us is too generous? That's not what we're hearing from her!!! The little minx will be shown this thread later, as we're being told that everyone else (particularly the low-income ones who'll get the grants, bursaries and extra loans) will have lots more money than she will! We only want to make up the difference so she'll start off level with her peers.

3plus1

Will PM you.

Heth_2

I was an EU student when I first came to uni, and couldn't take out a loan. My parents paid for my rent and tuition fees, and for my ticket home to Italy in the holidays, and then I had about 2500 a year for everything else (food, entertainment, books, clothes, travel etc...). Whilst I didn't have loads of money I certainly managed. I got jobs in the long holiday as I didn't get any money from my parents then (I had the 2500 divided into the 9 months of term time) but didn't work in term time. I had a fairly hard course and studied hard. I wasn't just doing a degree, I did alot of other things like volonteering, running and serving on the walking club committee, which enhanced my university experience, and felt very lucky that I didn't have to do bar work or something as well. The Oxford terms in any case were quite short (8 weeks) and very intensive so I don't think I could have managed to work as well, and very few people I was there with did. Many went back to jobs they had done before uni at home in the vac, a luxury I didn't have having come from abroad.