Cost of going to Uni.....

InsideInsurance

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

We're in England.
With the accommodation, is that something we have to pay for every month? (we as in me and DH?)
I guess i'm just trying to work out if we can afford to send him to Uni or not
We'd love to as he really wants to go and although i've read the course fees will be covered i'm worrying about all the other stuff!

Accommodation will depend on where he is staying. Most people who go away to uni stay in university halls for the first year and these are often payable by the term (ie 3 payments about every 3 months with none for the summer holidays) but after that many will go into private accommodation which is just a normal tenancy agreement with it happening to be students that are letting it.

There are three bits of normal financing potentially available:

Fees Loan - up to what the uni charges
Maintenance Loan - for outside london is circa £3,800 per year
Maintenance Grant - up to about £3,500 per year

The first two are repayable once he starts earning above the threashold, the grant is not repaid.

https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator allows you to estimate what you will get but remember to answer from the view of your son not yourself.

Outside of accommodation you have food, travel, books and entertainment. Some halls are catered and so breakfast and dinner included in the price others arent. Most include utilities exc phone or internet in the price too.

Once your out in private accommodation then utilities may or may not be included in your rent - if its rented as a whole dwelling normally they arent, if the landlords deals with separate lettings for each bedroom they often are.

Books, travel etc will depend on the university and the course. Some unis everything is very much in walking distance where as others they can be opposite sides of the city.

There is often a strong secondhand market for the books, you just need to be careful if editions have changed. Some subjects the books are fairly minimal and are run of the mill things so cheap. Some subjects they are very specialist and people are much less likely to sell them. For Medicine it was probably about £300 a year with few being available secondhand. A friend who did English Literature said they spent about £50 a year and most of those they didnt need.

Lagoon

looby75 wrote: »

for everyone saying get a part time job it's not always that easy. My daughter has been trying to find one for 3 years now with no luck (apart from one job that turned out to be a con and actually cost money and one p/t temp job last christmas), and the only person in her whole block who has been able to find a job only got it because he worked for Tesco where he lived and they agreed to transfer him to a store local to the uni.

Also depending on what course he is doing he might not have set hours, he lectures, seminars and any practical work may change from week to week, the timetables aren't set like school timetables. The only time my daughter is available to work is evenings and weekends and those jobs are in high demand by just about every student.

What kind of jobs is she looking for? When I studied at university I was never out of a job when I wanted one, but I did move around a lot. I took on temporary roles, or did basic tasks, rather than going for the retail and bar work that most people did.

I've just pulled up my old CV and jobs included being a cleaner, a temporary role in a bank, telephone surveys for the university, office clerk roles, leaflet distributor, and a job for the university giving tours to prospective students.

Signing up to an office agency is often a great way to get some work, but then I don't recall anyone at university when I was there being limited to evenings and weekends. Nobody went to university 9am-5pm every day, so my tips might not help at all!

ETA: Though, thinking back, the cleaning job was 5am-8am, and the bank and office jobs were all after 5pm. Leaflet distribution was a night job, and telephone surveys were conducted in the evening. The tours were during the day or at the weekend. So, any of those would have been suitable.

looby75

InsideInsurance wrote: »

There is often a strong secondhand market for the books, you just need to be careful if editions have changed. Some subjects the books are fairly minimal and are run of the mill things so cheap. Some subjects they are very specialist and people are much less likely to sell them. For Medicine it was probably about £300 a year with few being available secondhand. A friend who did English Literature said they spent about £50 a year and most of those they didnt need.

Good point about the books, my daughter was told not to buy any books in her first year as everything she needs is available in the library for long term loan. She will need to buy some for her second year but has been advised to go second hand and again anything newer will be available in the library. So far she's had no problems finding what she needs, the uni library has 2 kinds of loans a long term and a 4 hour, so if she can't find the book on long term she can borrow it for just long enough to do the work she needs to. I think this is the case at most uni's.

looby75

Lagoon wrote: »

What kind of jobs is she looking for? When I studied at university I was never out of a job when I wanted one, but I did move around a lot. I took on temporary roles, or did basic tasks, rather than going for the retail and bar work that most people did.

I've just pulled up my old CV and jobs included being a cleaner, a temporary role in a bank, telephone surveys for the university, office clerk roles, leaflet distributor, and a job for the university giving tours to prospective students.

Signing up to an office agency is often a great way to get some work, but then I don't recall anyone at university when I was there being limited to evenings and weekends. Nobody went to university 9am-5pm every day, so my tips might not help at all!

ANYTHING lol seriously she has handed out 1000's of CV's but the fact is she's in an unemployment black spot and all of the students are struggling to find a job.

She's doing a science degree so has 3 hour practical lessons twice a week on top of her lectures and seminars so her degree is very full on, and as I said subject to change every week. Sometimes she'll even get a email the day before her lecture saying its been moved to another time, the only time through the week that she is guaranteed to be free is Wednesday afternoons because that set aside for sports so no one has lectures/lab work/seminars then.

She's just applied for a summer job back home.......cleaning student housing ready for the new students in September :rotfl:

lady1964

My youngest DD is thinking of Uni this year and we've just finished visiting the 4 Uni's she's applied for.

Southampton was one of them and although we all felt the building looked a bit like an old hospital, the course she wants to do was excellent, the campus was located directly in the town and it had a nice overall feel. We didn't get the opportunity to look at halls though, which was a shame.

OP, I would definitely take the opportunity to visit any Uni your DS would like to, go on the tours that are offered around the campus/halls and get as much info as you can, although it seems like you've made a really good start anyway.

Anything else I would have advised on has already been covered

haycorns

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Thanks :beer:
That info from all of you really helps
As a household we earn about 52k a year but with high outgoings (mortgage, debts etc) Once the debt is paid off we would be able to afford to give him an allowance of £200pm but not much more than that.
We are considering Southampton Uni so that link was brilliant thanks :beer:

My son started last September, we earn too much to get any grants - just tuition fees and maintenance loan.

We are paying him £200 a month and he is doing fine that - it pays for ensuite accomodation in halls, all his food clothing, books etc and entertainment. We feed him in the holidays. If you clear your debt by Oct 2014, I'm guessing that will tie in nicely with his start date ( if he is 17 this school year)

I think it should be manageable for you. My son does not have time for a part time job during term time ,due to a demanding course, but he could pick up some summer work to give him some extra money. I'd suggest you start a box for him of the basic cooking utensils etc he might need so you can grab some bargains rather than having to equip him in full when he starts.

Just train your son now to be a moneysaving expert and he will be able to cook for less , save money on travel and entertainment. Manage his expectations on how much he will have to spend on himself. If he is a high maintenance son , designer labels and big scial life, he needs to start saving to pay for those extras when at uni.

Carrent

I did my undergrad studies 2003-2006 and last year went back to uni full time for a one year masters course, regarding books - I did buy some of the recommended books for my course back in 2003 but after spending a couple of hundred pounds barely opened them!

Most of what you need will be in the library, and there are usually similar books to whats on the "recommended reading list" that I don't really think it is necessary to buy. Plus these days there is very little that you cannot find on the internet - online journals etc. as long as you learn how to recognise what is acceptable material and what is a pile of c**p!

Bennifred

On the job front - my three (youngest is currently a student) found that it was/is easier to get full-time work in their home town during the holidays than find part-time work in their university towns. They found this sufficient to pay any extra they needed on top of the maintenance loan without needing any extra from us. (We always take them back with a bootful of groceries at the start of each term, though!)

Sharon87

Well could your son find a part time job now? He can use the money he earns as savings for his 'food and beer fund' at uni.

Don't forget he may be allowed a student bank account with a 0% overdraft. This saved me in my first 2 years of uni. It was just that little extra cash I needed. I worked in 2nd and 3rd year to pay off the overdraft.

I could have lived off my student loan to pay my halls of residence and lived off that money, just about. I never got any 'allowance' from my parents at uni. It didn't cost my parents any money to send me to uni apart from train fares to open days. I paid for the van to get my stuff to uni and my deposit for halls.

So things you may need to pay for (or your son):
Deposit for halls
Transport for open days
Petrol/car hire to get your son's stuff to uni
Rent - your son's student loan can pay for this
Food - son pays for this
Tuition fees - Student loan pays for this - then your son pays it back in his wages when he earns 21k

saintjammyswine

Southampton has 2 Unis both with excellent reputations, especially in research, medicine & computer engineering. There are cheaper cities to live in though. Depending on what your son wants to study FE College for a Degree level course may be a lower cost alternative, might be worth contacting your local colleges.