Brains1983

Pretty vague one here, since it's 16-18 years away yet...

I'm looking to start a savings plan now to cover the potential costs of sending 2 kids through University. On the basis they will stay in accommodation owned by us in the UK - what sort of numbers to you think I need to be working towards? Does 20k GBP p/year p/child for a 4 year course sound excessive or about right?

I thought I had mentioned it a couple of months ago, however I can't find the thread, maybe I didn't.

Cheers,
Brian

mikewot

What are you looking to pay for? Tuition fees or everything including food and entertainment?
Personally I would be minded to let the kids get the loan to pay tuition fees because the interest makes it an incredibly cheap deal (assuming that this is available in x many years time) and your savings aren't going to attract that much interest. I would also be minded to make them get a PT job to help fund entertainment, because they need to learn the value of money and if everything is handed to them on a plate.... Also working is not a bad thing because uni courses have a lot of 'fat' built in so they're not going to be too stretched. My youngest went to St Andrews, worked in a video shop evenings/weekends (most of the staff were Uni students) and gained a first in English and Medieval History without breaking too much sweat.

Brains1983

100% tuition fees. And the ability to provide enough for food if required. For the entertainment part of it, they can get a job if they want to go out boozing (or eat super-noodles for all 3 meals). Agree totally about learning the value of money.

mikewot

Hhhmmm, so you need to figure out what tuition fees are likely to be, potentially transport fees as well and what you think they should dine on :-) 20k is most likely a WAG as opposed to a ROM given how government tends to interfere but a good starting point IMHO.
Also factor in that they may not go for a standard 4 year course, Dr's and architects do longer. Also they may 'demand' a gap year plus funding.

Millhouse

It is a condition of being an Oxbridge student that you are not allowed to work - get caught and you run the risk of being sent down. Very very few people broke that rule too.

Depends on the course as to how much spare time you get - We did 30 hours a week timetabled + 20 hours a week of homework. Homework normally took longer as I didn't understand a word of it.

mikewot

And they wonder why there are very few working class kids at Oxbridge.
I'm of an age where my parents couldn't afford my going to Uni, so I did the University of Life course

Bahtatboy

My kids survived / are surviving quite comfortably living on the accommodation loan--I pay their accommodation. They don't work while there (although my elder son had a part-time job for a short while), but they work during the summer holidays for money for then and for the year. However, the hiked tuition fees are an issue.

At present costs you're looking at 9k for fees, 5k for accommodation, and 5k for living expenses if you're going to fully fund them.

scrubbedexpat141

I bet you were chuffed with shelling out for that...

mikewot

LOL! You have to study for what you're interested in (in later years I did Computing/IT with the OU). He wanted to go on for a doctorate in Medieval History but I think I managed to persuade him of the relevance to the real world. Now he's an English teacher.
What rankled more was that first son did 3 years at Dundee Uni but failed first year every time. Sigh! Now he works for HMRC.

scrubbedexpat141

Very true. Hence why I didn't do one....

Beakersful

Don't just estimate UK HE institutions. Look at EU ones delivered in English. Might stop your offspring picking up bad habits.

weasel decentral

I don't think that's necessarily a good idea, all jobs are going to be a bore after a while. Why not pick the one that's going to be financially best, then at you have the money to enjoy your life after work.

Plus at 17 choosing university courses nobody has an idea of what the real life work environment is going to be like later.

Millhouse

so why did you (and I) study engineering?

Bahtatboy

Chance plays such a large part--that an attitude.

I reckon that for every person I know who's making a good living from doing something directly related to what they studied, there's another who's doing just as well from something unrelated to what they studied.

Very few kids at 17 know what they want to do, and even if they do then, as Weasel said, most have little comprehension of what it will actually be like doing it. If you read the biogs of many leaders of industry, few have degrees directly related to the industries they work in (with medicine, law and perhaps engineering and construction being exceptions, although even with law that needn't be your first degree).

mikewot

Well your second point is the reason I go with the first point, choosing something that interests you and you can work up some enthusiasm for. Not something which looks like megabucks (dentistry anyone) but which isn't going to bore the tits off you while you're drinking your way through Uni.