When I were a lad I actually got paid to go with a grant, but anyway I digress...
My little fella is only 6 months old but I want to put enough money away over the years so that he can go to Uni should he want to. So if he was 18 today how much would he need?
Don't include the alcohol and soft drugs, he can get a part-time job and pay for that himself 
I owe the student loan company about 14k I think...graduated this year after 4 years (only got a part loan on my placement year). I didn't pay top up fees though!
put £100/month into a bond, what he doesn't use when the time comes, you can 
its difficult to say - as 18 years ago grants were still in place etc - so anything could happen over the next 18 (could go the way of the merkins, so you'll need 30k, or could revert back to being free..)
In Scotland fees are around £1800/yr and living costs will be around 600-700/month.
Make the kid pay their own way.
Well it cost me about about 1k for tuition fees per year and 1k for food and accomodation per term. So 16k over 4 years. Tuition fees are 3x that now so about 24k now. In 18 years time it could be nothing or double that. I'd aim to have at least 30k in the bank if you want to fund him out right.
Can probably set up an isa in his name and get tax free savings.
I'm off on Sunday (Nottingham)
Just looking at the letter:
£3564.00 Maintenance Loan
£3225.00 Tuition Fee Loan
=£6789.00/year as a base minimum
Call it £7K that's £21K if just a 3 year course...
Near enough £100/month not taking into account interest...
Ok, if we're playing that game:
Fees £1825 paid for me,
Grant £2850,
Maintenance Loan £2250 - at those rates its rude not to take it.
Having finished an engineering degree in 2001 with a good grade from a reputable uni, I'd say it costs a darn sight more than it's worth. I wouldn't do it again if I had my time over. With the way they're cramming them in these days, it doesn't carry the kudos it once did. just sav what you can and see what's a wise thing to do with it when he's old enough.
I'd add another grand (minimum) per year on top of the (edit: basic/minimum/non income assessed) maintenance loan. My accommodation last year cost me £3400 which was (only just) covered by my maintenance loan. The extra grand plus my overdraft covered groceries and socialising.
You get loans to pay for tuition, living costs etc... but won't be enough to cover everything if he wants to have a bit of fun too! IMHO all you "need" to pay as a parent is for rent and possibly some dosh for food but he will gradute with a big loan. However you only pay it back as and when you earn so not the end of the world...
However I would also say the amount you could spend at uni is pretty much limitless.
Ouch, bit steep then. Cheers for the replies
i would suggest with the way things are going, you'll need to do a masters after the degree.
yeah thad doesn't cover actual living costs.
I could try and add up my outgoings but won't.
Basically I got by on
Full loan ~£4000
Hardship bursaries ~£500
and working full time every vacation ~£4000.
Out of that I covered all my costs, paid my own tuition fee and had a good though not excessive time. We were not allowed to work part time during term, the workload was too high.
Graduated 3 years ago so reasonably realistic costs.
my costs (Sept 2004 - July 2008)
Rent £45 (big single room) - £65 (double en-suite) per week once I was out of halls (which were extortionate)
Food £10 - £15 per week
Utilities £10 per week your actualy there (32 weeks per year)
Alcohol £incalculable
Drugs £DoesCyclingCount?
Tuition in my year was about £1200 and bout £4000 of loan ontop of that.
I could have comfortably managed on just the loan, but could probably have had even more fun if I'd loosened the purse strings even more (I actualy garaduated with a savings account!)
All in all I'd say £4500 minimum per year plus tuition. If I was doing what you'r doing I'd aim to have the full, un-subsidised, tuition ready to pay (so about £11k per year at todays rates) as I can't see them removing the student loan. Which by my reconing (4% interest rate, 2.5% inflation, £11k p/a in today money) means putting away £150 a month. Alternatively just do what the americans do and tell him to take out a loan when the time comes.
Engineering degree's aren't worthless, I'm earning £30k 12months after graduating with a 2:2!
Some courses require lots of materials. My daughter could easily spend up to £300/mth on books and materials.
How much it will eventually cost will all depend on how much YOU are willing to support your children. My son is a mature student on a day release course from his work and we are supporting him with fuel costs and his employer is paying course fees.
Daughter is aiming for her 2nd MA, fortunately the 2nd one is work supported 
Accomodation fees will vary but we found a terraced house to buy cheaper than rent 6yrs ago.
Be very careful about entering into an accom partnership with any of his "mates". I know 2 people who got stung for a few grand because of this when things got t*t* up!!!
Yea, never buy a house and rent it to friends, I've not seen a single one work out. Yet my brothers still gone and done it..............
If any parents are thinking of buying a house to do just that, do it properly, buy a house, then let it through the universities aproved housing scheme, and draw up a propper contract. Even better, let it to another group of students entirely and use the profits to subsidise your offspring, otherwise it realy is a PITA when your "mate" is in charge of repairs as they tend to put them off.
told eldest llama the other day we would pay for accomodation but thats all
Great! she said, I could live somewhere really nice!
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha how little she knows
My daughter could easily spend up to £300/mth on books and materials.
oh yes thats a good one
In 18 years time I think you'll see a relatively free market for education in the UK. Oxbridge could quintuple their fees tomorrow and people would still be queuing up to get in. Sunderland poly could probably cut their fees in half and still have plenty of places. Their future fees will reflect this.
There will always be scholarships for bright kids, though.
£300/mth on books!!!!!!!!!
Yea rite...........
£300, even in a niche subject where book costs are atronomical, buys you 3x 800 page books. My organic chemistry book lasted 3 years (essentialy making up a 6th of my entire undergrad course). I don't think I could have read/learnt it any faster at taken any of it in! Anyway, expensive books are what libraries and ebay are for.
If the system goes the way I epect it to (no more subsidies and everything going ito a loan) I'd probably pay for their tuition, anything else is learning the value of money. If you pay their rent, they'll just take out the £4k loan anyway and piss it up the wall and graduate with a 3rd (or not graduate).
My daughter could easily spend up to £300/mth on books and materials
doing design i thought i had it easy - no books required - then i spent literally thousands on myt final project on tools, equipment and materials! ouch.
My loan debt is circa £15k and that was one of the smaller ones amongst my mates. to factor in living costs and accomodation you couls easily double that.
My advice would be encourage him to take up a career that you can do straight from school without a degree and make an earlier start in the working world.
Sadly everybody wants a degree these days so there aren't many good options around.
My advice would be encourage him to take up a career that you can do straight from school without a degree and make an earlier start in the working world.Sadly everybody wants a degree these days so there aren't many good options around.
I'd say decide what you want to do. If there's a subject that you're really interested in, then go to university and study it. Or, if there's a career you're really interested in, find out if a degree makes sense for that career, and if so, go to a good university for the subject and study it, otherwise go straight into work.
People who say you should always just go to university are silly, and may end up encouraging people to waste their time spending three years doing stuff they're not interested in, but then people who say university is always a complete waste of time are also silly.
There's obviously the financial argument too, if you go to a good university, you earn a lot more money on average over your lifetime than someone who didn't go to university still. There isn't really a 'head start' when people coming out of university are getting £10k higher starting salaries and having faster career progression. I don't think that's a very good argument for just doing any old course though, even at a fancy university, but it obviously does sway some people.
It's also worth remembering that you can always do a degree later. You don't have quite the same experience maybe, but you do tend to have much more of an idea of why you are doing it. As a bonus, if you've been living independently for long enough, you get classified as independent from your parents, meaning you don't have to pay quite so much in tuition fees etc. as their income isn't taken into account.
i would suggest with the way things are going, you'll need to do a masters after the degree.
That is the norm in a few countries - we have loads of students from particular countries where you need a masters to do anything. The rumour about this is that the reason is that in several of those countries, it is pretty much possible to buy your first degree, so they are somewhat devalued, even for the unlucky kids who actually put in the work, which is sad. That doesn't seem to be the case here even at the worst universities. There are also several European countries where postgrad degrees are a large part of professional training, so lots of people have them, whereas in this country that kind of vocational training is usually something separate.
But I don't see it being the case in the UK, except for areas where it is really very competitive and a more specialised masters can be very useful, for example I seem to remember International Development & charity work people often have masters degrees, because it is a hard sector to get into, and having focused knowledge of a particular area is very useful for the work.
Joe
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