You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
My eldest is off next year, location not decided as yet.
Was talking with an old mate who has one child already at uni and another on the way this year. He tells me that child 1 is paying £180 per week for accomodation alone!! En suite room but no food.
Is this now standard?
I was expecting an increase on the £19pw I paid but £180!!
Yes, it is now standard, along with the fact that no teaching appears to occur in the third term in either of my kid's courses.
The whole thing is just a massive scam.
Pretty much. My daughter's at Warwick paying £109/wk for a more basic block with shared facilities - kitchen between 14 and bathroom (3 showers) between 7 - 2 bathrooms on the floor. Next year I just looked up is £117, assume energy etc., will be higher, but she'll be out in a student house anyway.
The posher . newer versions on the same village are £207/wk for ensuite, bigger more modern room, and kitchen between 10.
I said she could apply for whatever she wanted, but her grant (loan plus parental top up) was staying the same and make her choices, what could she do with another £90/wk vs having an ensuite. She doesn't regret it at all, and sounds like it's mainly the rich kids that are in the more expensive ones. She's even sharing with northerners!!
[edit - NB although £109/wk that's also a 40 week let. Good that she doesn't have to empty her room at Christmas and Easter, but she's paid for 10 weeks when she's in the main been at home] Actual cost therefore over the 30 weeks of term time is more like £145/wk]
[edit 2 - same as martin, at least for examined courses. My daughter's doing arts, so has no exams, it's all done by course outputs and they do at least have a 5 week project that takes up most of the first half of the term while other students are doing exams]
There are websites that try to keep track of accommodation costs, e.g., save the student. Unsurprisingly, London and Edinburgh are expensive places to live for students.
Yes a room is c 800 pcm plus utilities, it's c half the cost of a 2 bed flat on a long term let. Does seem a lot but rentals are at a premium at the moment. Dontvreally see it getting better as landlords are selling up.
Don't be too down- friend of my daughter's has just booked accommodation for Kings College who allocate largely on a first come/first served basis- apparently the cheapest option when she received offer confirmation was 350/week.
I'm still trying to make sense of the rabbit warren of rooms that's on offer at the Cambridge college my daughters been offered at- half the building plans don't even seem to have a price band on, and the room layouts vary so much - bathroom and kitchen shared between two rooms, ensuite but kitchen shared between half a dozen rooms, house or new build, but it seems like the only option/choice we get to make is either room with ensuite, or room by price band, and take the facilities you're given.
Yes.
I have one in Edinburgh - both Uni owned halls and now private accommodation are huge expense.
I may have a second one in St Andrews shortly (!), or second choice Edinburgh.
It smarts. And it seems a borderline racket - for Uni, hall providers and private landlords.
[edit – NB although £109/wk that’s also a 40 week let. Good that she doesn’t have to empty her room at Christmas and Easter, but she’s paid for 10 weeks when she’s in the main been at home] Actual cost therefore over the 30 weeks of term time is more like £145/wk]
Wait until when she's in a student 'house' (I use the term loosely!) when she will be paying 50 weeks regardless of occupancy.
Student living is eye wateringly expensive now.
Edit: One daughter is nearing the end of a 12 month placement in Manchester. Seeing as they were earning she and two friends have rented a beautiful apartment complete with gym in a new block of flats near Spinningfields.
It's only cost about £150/month more than the utter shit hole student house she was in last year (and next)!! Massive rip off and I can't wait for my 3 girls to finish!
[proud dad] Eldest is finishing this year and has got one of only 7 grad jobs at eBay starting in September! [/pround dad]
But seeing as she's going to be living in London I don't see an end to funding being required!
Oh there's nothing 'Borderline' about it matt. Getting accomodation in St Andrews is like something out the Hunger Games,unless of course ,you are in the super rich set.
They just helicopter in and buy a property for their darlings and 'select' friends, then sell it on for a tidy profit 4 yrs later 👍 😆 🤣
Quite a lot of unis (stupidly) sold outright or entered into PPI-esque contractes for their halls in the past decade, so it's not even like they're making the money - it's mega private equity conglomerates... 🙁
Friends daughter is going to st andrews next year, £7000 a year
Oh there’s nothing ‘Borderline’ about it matt. Getting accomodation in St Andrews is like something out the Hunger Games,unless of course ,you are in the super rich set.
They just helicopter in and buy a property for their darlings and ‘select’ friends, then sell it on for a tidy profit 4 yrs later
I've offered mine a tent, I'm sure East beach has some sheltered spots...
I know a girl who married the CEO of one of those student accommodation firms, they sold it a few years ago. They now split their time between London town house, chalet in Alps and yacht in the Med. I think he personally made over £100m.
Its at moments like this that you discover you've spoiled your children and they have no idea of the value of money. "Its only £32 extra a week for en-suite". (He got the shared bathroom option when I explained I was contributing a fixed sum and it was up to him how he spent it!).
But if you think the halls are bad - the private landlords are no better, and it seems "its only students" so quality is not that important.
Getting accomodation in St Andrews is like something out the Hunger Games,unless of course ,you are in the super rich set.
I pity the students that end up in Eden Mill @ Guardbridge.
I'd be pissed off if one of mine ended up there in the middle of nowhere when they thought they were going to be living by the East Sands.
I pity the students that end up in Eden Mill @ Guardbridge.
I’d be pissed off if one of mine ended up there in the middle of nowhere when they thought they were going to be living by the East Sands.
Hardly a Siberian Gulag though is it? 😉
A short, flat, cycle away on a segregated bike path.
Not like you would choose St Andrews if being the centre of the action was a priority.
Can't believe some of these numbers! I work at a uni and our accommodation runs from about £110/week for a basic room to £165 for a 'superior' room with en-suite.
Costs-wise, I sometimes think in terms of wages - back in 1998 my student halls (in one of the poorest parts of the UK) were equivalent to about 12 hours wages of my Saturday job. NMW for an 18 year old now is £7.50 so £110 is more like 14-15 hours. But I'm willing to bet that even today's cheaper student accommodation is nicer than than the 11-bed house with 2 showers, 2 bogs, and lino floors that we enjoyed!
Eldest is at Cambridge, all accommodation provided by the colleges, £126 a week for
30 weeks for a room in a shared house.
I gather they have not put up their costs since fuel costs went nuts this time last year.
Edit - vinneyeh just spotted your comment, my lad is at Pembroke, if you need any advice I can pass on questions, he may know someone at the college you are looking at
actually, I just looked at some photos. Put a dozen male 18-year olds in one of those and it will probably soon be the equal of any shithole you care to mention...
@doris5000 indeed. £180/week for an ensuite room seems high, but not unreasonable.
Expectations and standards seem higher now than they were back in 80s Manchester. Thankfully.
Example https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/experience/student-life/living-costs/
The overall cost of university is crazy. Eldest decided against it and now working as a software engineer at the age of 19. He seems pretty happy to be earning a decent wage and saving for a house, rather than paying someone else's mortgage. One of his friends thought the same and is doing an engineering apprenticeship with the RAF.
Appreciate some sectors need a degree, medicine, law, engineering etc. But it seems to me that there are a lot of pointless courses round. Which was fine in the late 90s early 2000s when it was cheap and you wanted to toss it off for a few years.
The overall cost of university is crazy.
MCJnr's girlfriend is doing a degree apprenticeship with IBM instead of uni. She's in her second year and not far behind me salary wise.
Check carefully when choosing universities, as the costs vary hugely from place to place, and where you think might be expensive (Cambridge etc) are often quite reasonable in comparison with places such as Lincoln, Leicester etc.
My son was at Sussex uni. The last 2 years he was in a shared house with 4 others. Each paid £600 a month.
I taught a lass who went to Stirling a couple of years ago and due to family poverty got every bursary and fund and all saas support we could find for her. The amount she got was £10 more than the years accommodation. So just to travel to uni she was already worse off.
I pity the students that end up in Eden Mill @ Guardbridge.
I’d be pissed off if one of mine ended up there in the middle of nowhere when they thought they were going to be living by the East Sands.
Not as much as those who found themselves housed in Dundee when they applied for St Andrews halls!
Appreciate some sectors need a degree, medicine, law, engineering etc. But it seems to me that there are a lot of pointless courses round. Which was fine in the late 90s early 2000s when it was cheap and you wanted to toss it off for a few years.
We have had some discussions about how to attract and retain graduates and have half seriously discussed the possibility that if we are asking for a degree we should be refunding student loans if you are still with us after 3/5 years. I think in ten years time that sort of thing will be quite common in sought after subject areas. But we should be aware that one persons pointless subject might not get such support and so will increasingly become the domain of the affluent. I’m not sure that sits well with me - if someone from a poor background has the grades and the interest to study classics, circus skills or embroidery why shouldn’t they?
If you want to make it even more expensive, my pal has just informed me his son (and the rest of his house) are paying a company a small fortune to pay their utility bills for them on top of the cost of the bills!
Eldest currently in year 2 at Sheffield. Reasonably priced room in a shared house of 6 but spends most of his time at his girlfriends apartment.
Youngest in year 1 at Edinburgh. Currently in relatively cheap halls for Ed but still looking for somewhere for year 2. Availability is terrible and so are the costs. She loves it there though. Only 3 more years to go.
If you want to make it even more expensive, my pal has just informed me his son (and the rest of his house) are paying a company a small fortune to pay their utility bills for them on top of the cost of the bills!
Tell me more. My daughter goes into a shared house next year with 3 others and the letting agent (student specialist) has sent them through a 'deal' for https://fusedbills.co.uk/
They've been told £26 per person per week = £400 / month give or take. For all water, electricity, gas, broadband, etc. Plus obviously a kickback to the agent that suggested it! But they don't then pay bills on top, and then don't have to worry about leaving lights on, etc.
I'm paying about £320 a month for all my stuff and that's for a 3 person house and I'm an energy fascist over lights and heating..... doesn't sound that bad a deal all told.
My son is in the Netherlands studying and the student accommodation situation there is dire. As a foreign student you don’t even get a look in at shared student houses which are all controlled by the estate agencies. In the end we had to give a months rent under the table as did three other families we know and pay 800 euros a month all inclusive for his room! Same situation for my older son in Berlin. Having kids going to Uni is an expensive business!!
I just checked back at my Halls in London. It was 70 quid a week catered breakfast and dinner on weekdays in 1996.
Now it costs 216! Admittedly they look much nicer in the photos*.
Our plan is to have paid our mortgage by the time our first one goes to uni so we can chip in, unfortunately it's even more expensive in Australia. University of Queensland equivalent looks to be over 300 GBP.
*yes, I know.
The overall cost of university is crazy
not when you factor in the potential increased lifetime earnings, the fairly low tuition fees (not changed since 2017), the way any loans are paid back, and the life experience gained.
Current tuition fees barely scrape the surface of the true cost of tuition for some courses.
But it is not for everyone and other opportunities are available. Though accessibility should not be based on ability to pay, that’s for sure.
not when you factor in the potential increased lifetime earnings, the fairly low tuition fees (not changed since 2017), the way any loans are paid back
1 in 5 are not, a further 2 in 5 meh, and 2 in 5 create enough wealth to mask the previous figures:
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/impact-undergraduate-degrees-lifetime-earnings
From the web blurb on the IFS intro to that report
Going to university is a very good investment for most students.
YMMV.
Plus ‘the love of learning’ and its benefits are often under represented these reports or discussions. For example, I would never have established such a good understanding or respect for American literature had it not been for undergraduate chemistry.
Also, and not to beat around the bush, but part of going to Uni is about the experience. Not just parties and drinking, but the transition to becoming an independent learner and thinker, not only about the subject but other matters. Two examples
My daughter has since being there joined the musical theatre society and taken part in 2 entirely student led productions; one of which was of high enough quality to run for 4 nights at the arts centre in a 600? seater theatre. Entirely student led, from performers to directors to the live band to the costumes to the..... everyone bringing skills to the table. She'll do the same next year and then hopefully in Y3 will work to put a team together to produce the performance.
She's also moving out into a house - she's sorted the viewings, handling the details with the agent, and now is in the process of finding out about the utilities, etc., hence question up there. I'm here as a guide and a safety net if needed but as far as possible I'm hands off - she asked me about all in utility bill services, I said that she doesn't need to go with the one the agent recommended or use one at all, sent her an article I'd found - and it's now up to her to decide with her housemates what to do. That's why i push back on some of the threads on here where people seem IMHO overkeen to get involved in whether their kids door locks work or whatever. Letting go and letting them solve their own problems, make their own choices and mistakes is part of it.
It's a rarified atmosphere to some extent, not exactly 'the real world' but in this day and age if you choose not to go (absolutely right choice for some) then chances are you'll stay at home and get a job but also have your life largely organised for you still. Exceptions of course but not many get packed off to jobs or apprenticeships somewhere else in the country at 18 nowadays
Had a quick skim through that IFS report. I know there are lies, damn lies and then statistics but I think you could manipulate the data to represent a chosen viewpoint.
For example it compares people in jobs with degrees to those without degrees. I'd make an assumption (whether correctly or incorrectly) that someone who has got a degree will generally try and use it to get a higher paid job. So you're comparing lawyers (with a degree) to someone who works in the services industry all their life.
Would be interesting to see it cut across job roles where people doing the same role did and didn't have degrees and see what the comparison was.
TBF the report does acknowledge that a lot of the figures are driven by the top 10% of highest earning graduates.
I realise I was side tracked into ‘cost of university’ when the OP’s topic was ‘cost of university accommodation’
Given other threads on housing perhaps this could be easily converted into ‘cost of accommodation for those on low incomes’. Whether student or other this is a challenge.
Would be
interestingirrelevant to see it cut across job roles where people doing the same role did and didn’t have degrees and see what the comparison was
FTFY. As you wrote
I’d make an assumption … that someone who has got a degree will generally try and use it to get a higher paid job
Indeed. Doing the same role as someone without a degree you’d expect would produce the same pay. For example, a graduate working the same hours at £50/hour in a job will earn the same as anyone else doing the same.
That’s why i push back on some of the threads on here where people seem IMHO overkeen to get involved in whether their kids door locks work or whatever.
I have had zero input on any of my 3 daughters housing matters (other than signing as guarantor and being a removals service) - I thought this was completely normal!
I did smile at this comment in that report...
few of those studying creative arts will gain financially from their degrees at all
no s***, Sherlock. Made we wonder if the person who wrote the report has a degree.
Pleased all 3 of mine have degrees but studied vocationally for them. No accommodation costs as they stayed at home. Money saved has helped them all get on the housing ladder in their early 20s. I guess they missed out on the 'university experience' but they did all seem to get drunk a lot in their late teens so maybe not as much as I think.
I was really hoping you'd all pile in with "£180 pw is utter madness, we pay half of that"...
Guess my two are headed for a debt ridden decade!
no s***, Sherlock. Made we wonder if the person who wrote the report has a degree.
It's actually a very comprehensive analysis of graduate earnings data up to age 40. I think it's pretty interesting to see it quanitified - the only graduate cohorts who are statistically more likely to earn less than their peers who did not go to university are men studying creative arts and men studying social care.