The Costs of Uni?

Wiggynut

GoodRiddance wrote: »

If you leave University with £15,000 of debt and get a job earning £20,000 a year, very roughly speaking you will pack back £37.50 a month and have £60 a month added to the debt in interest. Enjoy

so it keeps going up!!!
I would have thought you'd be paying the min amount at least!
I take it you can organise to pay more... or do you do that separately.. cheque or DD?

GoodRiddance

You can make one off payments but that would be unwise. As long as the interest rate in your savings account is more than the Student Loan interest rate then leave the money in the savings account.

Idiophreak

Wiggynut wrote: »

so it keeps going up!!!

Yep, quite a few people won't ever clear their student loan, unless they make additional payments...

lilysgarden

Wiggynut wrote: »

I'm starting in Sept 08 and the course fees are £3,145 per year... when you say they might go up to £6,000 per year will that apply to new students only or to all???
If it goes up to that amount then I'm not sure I'll be able to continue!
I was asked if I wanted to go into the 2nd year but decided to do all 3... I just hope I have made the right decision!

why would it go up by double the amount?????

This is very depressing news!

If you pay one amount for fee's at the start of your course, that amount will stick throughout the lentgh of the course. The fee's went up from 1k to 3k just before my second year. Not a prob for me as the LEA pays my fee's, but my b/f pays his fee's. Price increases will only apply to students starting the september after the increase is introduced!

As for my debts? As a mature student who started uni with fairly small debts, I have now finished uni with around 25k. 15k or so is student loans, so no problems with that. I started uni owing around 5k on loans, credit card and overdraft. Thanks to moving away to uni and the cost of books and living being higher than I planned, plus my car giving up it's ghost (and me being dependent on my car because of practice placements), that pretty much doubled to 10k or so. But my starting salary once I'm registered etc should be around 25k a year. Double what I could earn without a degree. So I figure it was an extremely worthwhile investment. Plus I gained from it personally in regards to increased confidence etc!:j

Oldernotwiser

Wiggynut wrote: »

so it keeps going up!!!
I would have thought you'd be paying the min amount at least!
I take it you can organise to pay more... or do you do that separately.. cheque or DD?

You can pay extra but there's really no point. If your earnings drop below £15,000 (having children/redundancy/part time work) then you don't pay anything unless you go back over the £15,000 threshold. Many of us will never repay it and are completely untroubled about the fact. Many people (of whom I'm one) think that it's better to consider your student loan as a graduate tax rather than a debt to be repaid. Rather than worry about the student loan, make sure that you keep any other borrowings as low as possible, or even nil. These will have to be repaid at commercial rates and regardless of your personal/financial situation. Your student loan's a doddle compared to these.

bestpud

Wiggynut - I really wouldn't worry! If the fees do go up, it is very unlikely to affect current students.

OP - as it stands at the moment, you pay tuition fees of around £3k, for which everyone is entitled to a loan. Then you can get a maintenance loan and possibly a grant, depending on your (if you are an independent student) or your parents, if not, income. This is to cover living costs.

In reality, the maintenance loan/grant cover the essentials like rent and most students either get help from their family, or work to make up the shortfall.

Have a look at this link for more info. It will give you an estimate of entitlement too:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/FinanceForNewStudents/DG_10034859

Student accommodation varies - best things is to have a look at a few uni websites for that.

Then there is books etc but tbh, for many courses, you can economise quite a lot if you are prepared to use the uni library.

I'm a mature student (but on the old system, which is much friendlier on the pocket!) and I think it is worth every penny! But having said that, my 16 year old dd was saying she was going to reassess whether she wants to go to uni in a couple of years, as she doesn't want to rack up the debts unless her career choices dictate she needs a degree. She said she'd rather work her way up if that is an option.

While I'd like her to get a degree and have always encouraged post 16 education, I have to say, I could see her point given the current HE climate!

Hth!

Titch89

if you go to a uni in London (and don't normally live there) you get a bigger loan than you would if you live at home or live somewhere that isn't London.

Lokolo

Titch89 wrote: »

if you go to a uni in London (and don't normally live there) you get a bigger loan than you would if you live at home or live somewhere that isn't London.

Bigger Maitenance Loan (not Tuition )

angela110660

Son currently just finished 2nd year of 4 - on paid placement for 1 year now as part of course but this covers basics - rent, Tube, food. Has taken the student loan of £3k each year which has covered his rent basically. In first year and part of 2nd worked several shifts at a restaurant for spends. Gave up after Xmas as needed to concentrate on studies - this has paid off very well good results - but we have had to provide spends from our money eg £400 per month.
Now moved to another town to do placement and we had to find 2 months rent upfront for him to take on rental agreement, plus his first months pay is only partial one so we are paying next months rent too.
Reckon that to date after 2 years - cost him and us £10K and he is not a big spender and does lots of free stuff with sports eg 5 a side etc. It is all the normal things like saving for Xmas, birthdays, the odd night out, the summer ball ticket, bus/trains which eat up the money. He does lots of cooking for himself and his flatmates because he enjoys it but they are not extravagant by any means. We have another year after this one - so am sure we will be helping out. Hope this is of interest - dont underestimate the cost of stuff

Bennifred

Angela - do you really give your son £400 a month for "spends"?:eek:
Mine has to manage on half that - and that covers everything except rent; so food, entertainment,etc etc comes out of that £200 (and like your sone did previously, he earns it himself:p )