Help needed! The cost of sending your kids to University.

HerrMetal

fretmeister said:

My eldest is looking at 5 year combined undergrad and masters in Aerospace Engineering.

Going to cost me a fortune.

Eldest son did a 4 year combined undergrad and masters in Computer Science. He was able to get an excellent job straight away and his starting salary was in excess of what I was earning at the time - and I considered myself pretty well paid.  I've since quit work (too old for the computer industry) and his pay has increased further.

I'm not sure it cost us a fortune but whatever it was I certainly consider our support of him a very worthwhile investment for his future. 

Snap

Cost us about 6 or 7k a year.
In my view the parental income should have no bearing on them - they are adults, treat them all the same. That's equality IMO. And don't get me started on the joke that is fees. Just how you justify paying the same fees for studying medicein vs say an arts is beyond me.

Dominic

That's an interesting point
.........does a medical tutor get paid more than an English Lit tutor ( I have no idea )

ToneControl

munckee said:

I’m in a similar position in that my daughter is in 1st year of a levels and is in doubt about going to uni despite me suggesting the army instead. 

I don’t know yet what the income thresholds are for loans but I fully expect to or digging deep. 

roughly:
£25k total income between both parents gets your daughter a full £9.5k maintenance loan
ranging up to 
£62k total income between both parents gets your daughter a £4.3k maintenance loan

Martin Lewis: How much the Govt expects parents to give their children while at university 2021/22 (moneysavingexpert.com)

ToneControl

Snap said:

Cost us about 6 or 7k a year.
In my view the parental income should have no bearing on them - they are adults, treat them all the same. That's equality IMO. And don't get me started on the joke that is fees. Just how you justify paying the same fees for studying medicein vs say an arts is beyond me.

3 lectures a week for my daughter, so say 90 lectures a year for £9k = £100 to attend each lecture
I know that's not including exam marking and seminars, but every way I analyse it comes up at more per hour than a private tutor would charge for one-to-one teaching

ToneControl

Dominic said:

That's an interesting point
.........does a medical tutor get paid more than an English Lit tutor ( I have no idea )

probably, but there are far more lessons/lectures/lab sessions for a degree in medicine, and the cost of laboratories, etc

PolarityMan

I was pretty lucky, my parents paid tuition which was only 1k plus accomodation which was only about 210 / month in a shared flat then I used my student loan (which i got the minimum, non means tested portion only) for food and expenses. I worked during the summers including getting a couple of bursaries to secure me coming back next summer and had a part time job at an off license in years 4/5.

My masters year was fully funded by the uni so didnt get anything from parents for that year I think.

ToneControl

bloodandtears said:

We looked at bunch of remote Unis but my eldest has decide to commute..  he'll get a loan for the fees.. we'll put the maintenance money into a gov savings scheme towards a house/pension. If he changes his mind during his time we will have to reconsider the accommodation funding.

I actually believe he'd miss being around us and his home comforts. His college experience has, like others, been impacted by Covid with home learning etc reducing the social element.

Someone actually advised me not to consider accommodation at this time because of the current Covid instability.... i.e. it could be wasted money if they're eLearning again...

are you sure it's worth getting a maintenance loan to then put the cash into savings?
The loan will be 5% or more now?

PolarityMan

Snap said:

Cost us about 6 or 7k a year.
In my view the parental income should have no bearing on them - they are adults, treat them all the same. That's equality IMO. And don't get me started on the joke that is fees. Just how you justify paying the same fees for studying medicein vs say an arts is beyond me.

I think that would massively advantage some people though as even with a full loan I'm sure some peoples parents would contribute. Agree that it would be sensible to link fees to desirability of the qualification but unfortunate I suspect market forces means that there are still plenty of people willing to take an effectively interst free loan to study degrees that aren't worth the paper they are written on. 

It would make more sense to reduce the amount of loan available for some degrees but then you run in to the same argument that this disadvantages those from less affluent backgrounds.

munckee

ToneControl said:

munckee said:

I’m in a similar position in that my daughter is in 1st year of a levels and is in doubt about going to uni despite me suggesting the army instead. 

I don’t know yet what the income thresholds are for loans but I fully expect to or digging deep. 

roughly:
£25k total income between both parents gets your daughter a full £9.5k maintenance loan
ranging up to 
£62k total income between both parents gets your daughter a £4.3k maintenance loan

Martin Lewis: How much the Govt expects parents to give their children while at university 2021/22 (moneysavingexpert.com)

Thanks for that, her loan won't cover even cover the rent then - I'll get her a good sleeping bag and some cardboard!

sweepy

Does the Uni only offer Halls of Residence for the first year ? this massively affects the budget 

TTony

It's expensive sending them off to Uni.



It's even more expensive when they leave Uni and you're then funding a house, a car, a .....

bloodandtears

ToneControl said:

bloodandtears said:

We looked at bunch of remote Unis but my eldest has decide to commute..  he'll get a loan for the fees.. we'll put the maintenance money into a gov savings scheme towards a house/pension. If he changes his mind during his time we will have to reconsider the accommodation funding.

I actually believe he'd miss being around us and his home comforts. His college experience has, like others, been impacted by Covid with home learning etc reducing the social element.

Someone actually advised me not to consider accommodation at this time because of the current Covid instability.... i.e. it could be wasted money if they're eLearning again...

are you sure it's worth getting a maintenance loan to then put the cash into savings?
The loan will be 5% or more now?

badly worded....  in essence, the money we would have paid to support his accommodation and expenses will be put away..

lustycourtier

fretmeister said:

I've only just started looking at this.

Is there an idiots guide?

Do all students get the tuition fee loan but then the maintenance one is subject to eligibility stuff?

My Son got (getting) full maintainance grant but based on his grades being brilliant (astroPhysics) and qualifying that way. Hes about to go to Texas and Hawaii for 3rd year, fully paid at 25K a year. its insane but he did all the research and applications when he was at 6th form, and they had no interest in our incomes either.  

Sleepyscholar

I've appreciated reading all these figures, as someone who is a product of the old days when it was free: and I came out of uni with no debt (and no friends, ha!). Just in case you're interested in an international comparison that demonstrates how my chickens have come home to roost, my son is in his 2nd year (of the Japanese standard 4, though as he's just taken a 1-semester leave of absence because of online/pandemic-related stress, it'll actually be 5) at a university in Kyoto. No loans, no grants. Getting him in to a university cost us, as you have to pay for each entrance exam you take -- you can take multiple entrance exams to a university. So applying to 4 universities cost about 160,000 yen (about a grand in your English pounds). Then he was accepted by one place before he got the result from the place he really wanted to go to -- which we felt was dicey. So we had to pay a non-returnable deposit to hold the place: this time 1.5K. Turned out my son got lucky, and got into the place in Kyoto. So that was another 1.5K to hold that place. Then well over a million yen for each year's school fees, so that's 8K pa. There's the tiny apartment in Kyoto, well over 5K a year, and that's before we have any money spent on luxuries like, er, food and clothing.

I could have insisted that he came to the Nagoya university I teach at, which would have offered me a discount on his fees, and would have enabled him to live at home. But leaving aside the terrible situation of having my own son at my own university, my university is shit compared to the one he's at. And he really needed to escape from his mother (the pandemic made that impossible: hence the leave of absence).

I could insist that my son take out a loan for this, but there's no equivalent to the UK student loan, so he'd be paying commercial rates. And having come out of uni without debt myself, I don't feel like saddling him with it. So I'm biting the bullet, and viewing this as me finally having to pay back for my own free education.

Further international comparison: all Japanese high schools (from age 15-18) are fee-paying, even the state ones. Everyone knows how much the Japanese respect education... especially the Japanese educational establishments, which milk parents mercilessly. And of course, I can't complain, as it pays my salary.

jonnyburgo

lustycourtier said:

fretmeister said:

I've only just started looking at this.

Is there an idiots guide?

Do all students get the tuition fee loan but then the maintenance one is subject to eligibility stuff?

My Son got (getting) full maintainance grant but based on his grades being brilliant (astroPhysics) and qualifying that way. Hes about to go to Texas and Hawaii for 3rd year, fully paid at 25K a year. its insane but he did all the research and applications when he was at 6th form, and they had no interest in our incomes either.  

Woah thats awesome mate, well done to yr boy! Sounds amazing.

Had a pow wow with Mrs B this morn, we should be able to work it out, thankfully around the start of his second year our mortgage will be done with so those funds will go to the kids Uni stuff and with them working part time and contributing and us not putting owt into savings for 4 or so years we'll manage it. Feel stupid that we havent been putting enough away for them really but theyll have a few grand a piece to set themselves up with rent etc. I want them to go because it wasnt even on the table when I was a kid.

jonnyburgo

And thanks for the input chaps, its helped to get a slap of reality.

jonnyburgo

Sleepyscholar said:

I've appreciated reading all these figures, as someone who is a product of the old days when it was free: and I came out of uni with no debt (and no friends, ha!). Just in case you're interested in an international comparison that demonstrates how my chickens have come home to roost, my son is in his 2nd year (of the Japanese standard 4, though as he's just taken a 1-semester leave of absence because of online/pandemic-related stress, it'll actually be 5) at a university in Kyoto. No loans, no grants. Getting him in to a university cost us, as you have to pay for each entrance exam you take -- you can take multiple entrance exams to a university. So applying to 4 universities cost about 160,000 yen (about a grand in your English pounds). Then he was accepted by one place before he got the result from the place he really wanted to go to -- which we felt was dicey. So we had to pay a non-returnable deposit to hold the place: this time 1.5K. Turned out my son got lucky, and got into the place in Kyoto. So that was another 1.5K to hold that place. Then well over a million yen for each year's school fees, so that's 8K pa. There's the tiny apartment in Kyoto, well over 5K a year, and that's before we have any money spent on luxuries like, er, food and clothing.

I could have insisted that he came to the Nagoya university I teach at, which would have offered me a discount on his fees, and would have enabled him to live at home. But leaving aside the terrible situation of having my own son at my own university, my university is shit compared to the one he's at. And he really needed to escape from his mother (the pandemic made that impossible: hence the leave of absence).

I could insist that my son take out a loan for this, but there's no equivalent to the UK student loan, so he'd be paying commercial rates. And having come out of uni without debt myself, I don't feel like saddling him with it. So I'm biting the bullet, and viewing this as me finally having to pay back for my own free education.

Further international comparison: all Japanese high schools (from age 15-18) are fee-paying, even the state ones. Everyone knows how much the Japanese respect education... especially the Japanese educational establishments, which milk parents mercilessly. And of course, I can't complain, as it pays my salary.

Thanks for the post, I've been to Kyoto, its a cracking place.

ArchtopDave

My daughter did a 4 year Biology degree in Aberdeen, and then a year's Biomedical Masters in Glasgow. She came out with a 2:1 Degree and a 1st in her Masters, so I've been a very happy dad. Her only loan was her Tuition Fee loan for her Undergrad studies. So I paid all her accomodation/living expenses, and I paid her Post Grad Tuition Fee ( which was cheaper than her annual Undergrad Tuition fee). Even though she was very careful with her money, it was costing me £900 per month to support her.

And @TTony is right. Since she finished 2 years ago, I first bought her a car - a necessity for getting to work, and this year gave some money towards the deposit of her first house. She has, with the quality of her qualifications, had no problem with finding work, though she got made redundant, after being first furloughed last year, from her first job. She then rapidly got a much better paid job, as a Research Lab Assistant at Newcastle University, and has done well enough for the job, which was initially on annual basis, to be converted to a permanent job.

PhilW1

I'm sure we'll all be rewarded when they put us in posh care homes