University – funding your offspring – what are you doing ?

£100 a month away for each of them since they were born. They get it when they are 18 to do with as they please.

University, towards a house, coke and hookers, whatever. But I’m not paying their fees.

What’s with all the bank of mum and dad bailouts. Learn the art of their own money management, I won’t be chipping in no one helped me

I think wanting your kids to be as free from debt or as able to buy a housecas possible is pretty natural. I dont see how forcing then into debt helps them manage money better.

On a side note, how **** sad is it that the country has come to this and that many people seem to be so accapting of it as the right thing.

I particularly love the good old British ‘I won’t be chipping in, no one helped me’ mentality.
Through sheer luck, I appear to have been born at a good time ‘financially’. My kids haven’t. Mad house prices, a race to the bottom in wages in many jobs markets. Instilling a work ethic and some assistance financially is the least I can do.

no one helped me

Time’s have changed. When I went to Uni I got a full maintainence grant, a financial scholarship from a company and no tuition fees. I worked a bit too (computer programming) bought a car and paid for at least one ski trip a year. My youngest has had to pay £9k pa tuition plus living expenses loan and she did a degree and a postgrad.

I graduated 6 years ago. This topic seems to come up a lot but is fairly simple to understand if you’ve been through the university loan system. Like others have said; take the loans and help them out with any shortfall in living costs.
Repayment currently costs me £130 a month.
If my parents had foolishly coughed up in excess of £25k to cover fees and living costs it wouldn’t make a shred of difference to me now. I’d still not be able to afford to buy a house today.
Think about the longer term – if you can afford to finance your children for life then go ahead. For everyone else the tuition and maintenance loans are the cheapest beer tab you’re ever likely to get.

Whats with all this uni thing,huge debts,subsidies off mum and dad and a job when you eventually do your 3 years stacking shelves in the local mega shop, go for a proper trade apprenticeship, learn skills for life, be in demand, and build make things, show your kids what you worked on and built.

or get a comapny to sponsor you through uni, play around and not take thing seriously and youre out, a great way to learn and do your best while getting paid and learning in a company, just like an apprenticeship.

What project said

A uni education isn’t a prerequisite to a happy life.

What project said
A uni education isn’t a prerequisite to a happy life.

True – and some (@50% of the pop) will be relieved that they are not subsidising middle class childrens’ education.

True – and some (@50% of the pop) will be relieved that they are not subsidising middle class childrens’ education.

I dispair of this place sometimes.

MadBillMcMad – Member

Just wondering what others are doing ?

nothing, I live in scotland so its free lol

didn’t pay for my undergraduate degree and got a grant, my MSc was paid for by a company and my PhD by the BBSCR and I got a stipend for my MSc and my PhD. I lived at home for my undergraduate and MSc while I had my own home when I did my PhD.

nothing, I live in scotland so its free lol

Aye, sure it is ….. 😀

iainc – Member
no course fees here in Scotland, and the student loans aren’t means tested anymore. Daughter graduated in the summer there from Edinburgh – worked in a bar/restaurant and Starbucks the whole way through, left with about £15k of debt. Off in Netherlands doing a Masters now, but she managed to earn best part of 6K of the 10k she needs, so we are funding the balance.

iainc – Member

Aye, sure it is …..

it is, you don’t have to take out a student loan to go to uni. MSc’s are not normally funded anyway unless you are lucky or qualify for it. My MSc was paid for by a company plus I got a stipend. I didn’t pay for any of my education at uni.

I dispair of this place sometimes.

Not as much as others despair at the decline in spelling standards in education.

it is, you don’t have to take out a student loan to go to uni.

you still do for the accommodation and living though

Good discussion.

Thm, next you’ll be asking “why do people with no children or children in fee paying schools pay for the education of other (financially comfortable) people’s kids?”
Although I think that one has been done a couple of times in here and it wasn’t pretty iirc.

A uni education isn’t a prerequisite to a happy life.

Very true.
But if the job you want to do needs a degree you have to get one.
An apprenticeship isn’t enough for some jobs.

Thm, next you’ll be asking “why do people with no children or children in fee paying schools pay for the education of other (financially comfortable) people’s kids?”

Generosity of spirit?

Generous but not too generous then? Other leading and more eu countries seem quite relaxed (copyright Carney 😉 ) about paying British students’ fees in their universities, never mind their own students.

leffeboy – Member

you still do for the accommodation and living though

Good discussion.

I didn’t

^^^ ok so you got a funded Masters. How about undergraduate degree though. Students have accommodation and living costs, even if minimised by staying with parents.

iainc – Member

^^^ ok so you got a funded Masters. How about undergraduate degree though. Students have accommodation and living costs, even if minimised by staying with parents.

no costs living at home

Fine Julian – I am relaxed if others want(ed) to fund tertiary education for my kids. Very kind of them, especially if they are not able/wanting to go themselves….

How do people with no children end up paying in fee paying schools the education system is free? Unless you have kids and send them private? No?

no costs living at home

I take it you mean living with parents, who pay for food, shelter and welfare ?

I don’t really get where you are coming from here. A 20yr old living at home still needs money. Yes, if they have a part time job and no course fees, and stay with parents they can just about manage it, but it’s not easy or perhaps getting the maximum experience out of it, surely ?

What’s with all the bank of mum and dad bailouts. Learn the art of their own money management, I won’t be chipping in no one helped me but they could have and it made me learn to stand on my own two feet.

no one helped you? Really, you raised all the money to pay for your upkeep from birth all on your own and raised yourself in the woods? No state education, no NHS?

You were helped every step of the way by others.

Interesting. Many of us hark back to the days when there were no tuition fees. But now we have more people in higher education, although it’s not quite what it seems… Looking at the HEIPR data, the current rates are about 41% of the current school leavers are entering higher education, including 17-20 year olds. Then there is a trickle of people aged 21-30 making it upto 47% of an equivalent single year cohort, but this also includes people doing HN qualifications at FE colleges. The UCAS figures show that 33% of 18 year old school leavers accepted a place at university. And the rate for Boys is lower and Girls higher…

And the are some things now which are now a university course, and weren’t before. Eg Nursing.

I have a 20 year old starting year 2 of a 4 year degree. He gets the minimum loan, so we are paying accommodation and I suspect the sadly predictable deaths of various elderly relatives will pay off the bits he owes at the other side plus a house deposit. He and his younger brother are lucky that way.

As a medical student for 6 years on minimum grant (about £400 a year) 30 years ago, My parents still had to cover a lot of my costs, and didn’t always do so, again leading to me using up legacies to keep going at a time when I really had no time for a job in the last 3 years (worked solidly through 4 summer hols before that). But didn’t have to pay tuition fees.

The more realistic assessments of how much being a graduate in different subjects actually adds to an income might make people think about whether to go to uni, if they actually looked.

in the South East the cost of housing is so high that I begin to hope my kids and my partners will end up working elsewhere in the UK or Europe. Otherwise we will never get rid of them!

Back to education and paying kids to stay at uni,

most bus companies, arriva, stagecoach and First offer term time tickets ,buy one of them for your kid to use to travel about, no car required,no insurance or road tax.money saving along with a student rail card for the trains and national express coaches

I take it you mean living with parents, who pay for food, shelter and welfare ?

I don’t really get where you are coming from here. A 20yr old living at home still needs money. Yes, if they have a part time job and no course fees, and stay with parents they can just about manage it, but it’s not easy or perhaps getting the maximum experience out of it, surely ?

mum and dad gave me cash but I studied more than I went out drinking. having a good experience at university is not drinking every weekend. sure I could have gone out more if I had a part time job but that would have eaten into my study time or time with the GF.

^^^ fair enough, so you stayed at home, didn’t have a part time job and were fully supported by your parents.

So your parents did ‘fund their offspring through university’ albeit with no tuition fees 😀

FWIW I did similar, also in Scotland, though I did work a few nights a week in local pub. Was always jealous of my class mates who were in student flats in Glasgow though..