University Costs?
 

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

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

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 :D

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

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

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

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

Re: University Costs?
 

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

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

so why did you (and I) study engineering?

Re: University Costs?
 

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).

Re: University Costs?
 

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.

Re: University Costs?
 

Things I Didn't Know Until Today - No 457.

Re: University Costs?
 

Well I am speaking with the benefit of hindsight in my case. If I had to return and choose again, knowing what I know now, I would probably not choose engineering.
My choices at the time were law, engineering and pharmacy. I turned down pharmacy because I considered it boring, (it was my family's business so I had experience of this) and I turned down law because I didn't like the university.
So it was engineering by default.
I would choose pharmacy now.

Re: University Costs?
 

By the time your little angels are ready for university, 'savings plans' will be super-taxed........... I'm guessing at 60 pct.

Just open a basic deposit account and stick it in there.

Re: University Costs?
 

I'll give you another one (applies to Cambridge, not sure about Oxford) - you have to spend a certain number of nights within a certain radius of the city centre each term - failure to do so can lead to being sent down.

It was quite a small radius but was expanded to capture the 'new' colleges built on the outskirts of the city.

We had one guy (and Emirati, no less) who failed to meet this head-on-bed requirement as he spent all of his time in his London apartment. For some-reason he never got kicked out though.

Re: University Costs?
 

Jeez...Night porter clocks you in and out? CCTV? GPS inplant behind your left ear?

Re: University Costs?
 

in fairness, I have no idea. They didn't track it closely. More if you got grassed up or something.

Re: University Costs?
 

My youngest son is studying at liverpool uni at the moment, he is on a four year veterinary science BVSc course, he qualified for a full student loan to cover the fees of 9k, and will have to pay this back once he receives a salary of 21k or above.

Re: University Costs?
 

......if he chooses to stay and work in the UK. Expats have a different payment plan.

Re: University Costs?
 

I have two at uni at the moment. Fees are 9k, accommodation in halls is £120 a week, we give them £350 each a month for baked beans and supernoodles

Re: University Costs?
 

Fnar,fnar...

Convenience factor.

Re: University Costs?
 

Shouldn't they know the value of money before they are 17/18/19?
Don't you family guys do pocket money,chores and paper rounds?

Re: University Costs?
 

:goodpost:have a Distinction

Re: University Costs?
 

That would have been the Bedellus(doing the grassing) not the NP.
We used to let him sniff underwear to get us outta shit.