ossigeno

I am trying to gather my thoughts on the wisdom & timing of our daughter attending university in the UK. It is something we are thinking about and wondered if anyone else has considered or done same.

My first consideration is the financial implication of being considered an international student instead of a local/EU student even though she is dual citizen. My understanding is that if a British citizen resident outside of EU wishes to attend university in the UK, and they have not completed at least their last 3 years high school in the UK/EU, they will have to pay international fees at university.

So that brings me to the fees differences between local and international and if it is worth trying to be classed as a local student, i.e. complete high school in UK. I believe it is too late to take her back at 15 so would need to do so at 14 or earlier.

Examining the local/EU versus international fees 3 universities: Cambridge, Sussex & Kingston:

University of Cambridge
Local fees £9,000 / year for any course
http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergrad...e/tuition.html

International fees between £13,662 - £33,069 / year depending on course
http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergrad...nce/index.html

University of Sussex
Local fees £9,000 / year for any course, except medicine £19,000 per year
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/ug/fun...ionfees/homeeu

International fees between £13,000 - £24,860 / year depending on course
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/ug/fun...nfees/overseas

Kingston
Local fees ~£9,000 / year for any course
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergradu...-funding/#fees

International fees between £10,750 to £12,350 / year depending on course
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/internatio...-funding/fees/

From fees quoted it would seem all local/EU students now pay £9,000 / year.

Unless studying medicine at Cambridge will likely have an additional fee burden of up to £20000 over a 4 year degree.

Conclusion
Not worth the effort to relocate for 3-4 years to save a potential £20000.

Anyone have any other opinions or experiences?

RedDragon2008

Plenty of Australian children attend university in UK

Scholarship? Hardwork?

OzSheila

Have you considered any US universities? I know reps from several of the Ivy League unis attend my sons' school and daughter's ex High Schools vying for students. There are lots of opportunities for scholarships etc.

I know of someone who missed out on doing Law at Melb Uni by half a mark. He is now at Columbia which worked out a cheaper option according to his father.

HTH

ossigeno

That may be the case but a responsible parent needs to consider all avenues.

ozzieeagle

How does that work ?

Daughter is studying Engineering this year, hopes to transfer to Melbourne Uni at the end of this year. We haven't seen anyone from an Ivy League institution. She collapsed her marks due to spreading herself to thin with her Music and Science subjects and just scraped into Vic Uni. Doing really well this year, by far the youngest in her subjects and teaching the mostly overseas students the Aus learning systems ... Has given up her music at a serious level for now though, which is a shame as she was on target for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

I just checked with my Daughter and she said the courses at Melbourne Uni are 8K per term, which does indeed sound a bit steep. As that would be 128K per year... even with Hecs and the prospect at a fairly decent wage on completion thats still a bit steep.

One things for sure, I doubt you would get anything like the HECS system overseas ?

NickyC

That doesn't sound right. All commonwealth-supported places cost the same whether you do them at Melbourne Uni or Vic Uni or Black Stump Uni.

They cost from $5868 (humanities, education) to $9792 (law, medicine, commerce etc) a year. Engineering is $8363 a year (not $128k!)

International fees are more expensive and you don't get HECS with them.

roaringmouse

Surely that should be your daughters consideration, and how she will go about having the fees paid?

ossigeno

She is only 12 now so can't really make such decision now. We are planning for the future. Likely the father will cope the bill for any fees

spouse of scouse

Why a UK uni over an Australian one? It'd be a bugger if you spent all that money moving back, and she decided that uni wasn't for her.

ossigeno

I would be more than happy with Uni of Melbourne but it depends what she wants. There is also some perception that a UK degree has a greater recognition than an AU degree. We may go back to UK at some point as a family anyway.

Is certainly a risk. The conclusion I draw when putting it on paper was not to worry about moving back to try to be classed as a local student since the likely difference in fees would be ~GBP20k. Not a huge amount in the overall scheme of things. I have had this on the back of my mind for a few months and only by jotting it down did I realise it is not really worth worry about.

spouse of scouse

That's a good way of doing things when you're making a big decision, get it all out of your head by writing it down. Now all you have to concentrate on is the teenage years (boys, make-up, clothes, curfews, attitude) Good luck!

ossigeno

We have not considered the US but would be open to it. She goes to a good school now.

CEM

The other thing to consider, if you come back to the UK, is going to uni in Europe. A few of my daughters' peers are considering/doing that as the fees are cheaper than the UK and it's looked on quite favourably by employers, apparently.
My eldest's German teacher has tried to persuade her to go to uni in Germany, but she's not so keen!
It's tough to make a decision (even for a parent) at 12 as they change so much in the following 6 years and what they want now will not necessarily what they want at 18. It's likely that I will have one in the UK and one or two in Australia in the next 5 years!

Joe King

Your daughter is 12?!

I think you'll need to revisit this nearer the time!

So much can and will change between now and then.

RedDragon2008

The job of the parent is to look ahead and provide paths before the event