How much are tuition fees?
Have a look at this map. University tuition fees in England and Wales are marked:
How much does accommodation cost at university?
The cost of accommodation whilst your son or daughter is it at university will be a concern. Average rents range from £49.00 per week up to £220.06 per week. Unipool and the National Union of Students conducted a survey in 2009/10 to assess costs and types of housing available to students. The full report can be downloaded here.
The National Union of Students say:
- The latest survey shows that the average cost of a room was £92.90 in 2008/09, rising to £98.99 in 2009/10.
- The average rent in institutional accommodation in 2009/10 was £98.43, an actual increase of 20.3% from the 2006/07 survey.
- Predictably, London remains the area with the most expensive rents – averaging £125.34 a week across all accommodation in 2009/10.
- The cheapest rents are in Northern Ireland with an average rent of £64.17.
This BBC news articles also summarises some of the results and reports the experiences of a number of students from different universities.
Course fees and accommodation are only part of the cost of university. This table has been produced by the National Union of Students showing average student expenditure, in and out of London, in 2010/11 (obviously before the increase in fees):
| Average expenditure | ||
| Inside London | Outside London | |
| £ | £ | |
| Course Costs: | ||
| Tuition fees | 3,290 | 3,290 |
| Books, equipment etc | 978 | 978 |
| Travel | 648 | 648 |
| Sub-total: | 4,916 | 4,916 |
| Living Costs: | ||
| Rent | 5,069 | 4,004 |
| Food | 1,788 | 1,788 |
| Household goods | 289 | 289 |
| Insurance | 65 | 40 |
| Personal Items | 1,896 | 1,896 |
| Travel | 1,393 | 1,393 |
| Leisure | 1,197 | 1,197 |
| Sub-total: | 11,697 | 10,607 |
| TOTAL | 16,613 | 15,523 |
Maintenance grants and loans
This table has been produced by the BBC and shows the maintenance grants and loans available in the different nations.
| Max maintenance loan (London figures in brackets) | Max grant for students from low-income homes | Income threshold for max grant | Further details from | |
| England (2012) | £5,500 (£7,675) | £3,250 | £25,000 | DirectGov |
| Northern Ireland (2012) | £4,840 (£6,780) | £3,475 | £19,203 | Student Finance NI |
| Scotland (2011)* | £5,417** | £2,640 | £19,310 | Student Awards Agency for Scotland |
| Wales (2012) | £4,745 (£6,648) | £5,000 | £18,370 | Student Finance Wales |
* 2012 figures not yet available
** A large proportion of the Scottish student loan is means-tested. This means, for example, that students from families earning more than £61,000 a year can borrow only £915 a year. For students receiving grants, the amount they can borrow as a loan is reduced by the amount of the grant.
Working it out
As you will know, the cost of university if a hot political issue at the moment.
Many people are worried about the possible cost of repaying the new student loans for tuition fees. This cartoon, The Facts about Fees: Student Loans 2012, from the University of Bournemouth attempts to take a balanced view.
Check out the icould no nonsense guide to student finance. It also includes a podcast from Martin Lewis who busts the myths about student fees and loans and how much it cost you and your son/daughter.
You can also take a look into the future using MoneySavingExpert.com’s repayment calculator. You can change the variables such as tuition fee level, maintenance loan level and likely starting salary, and get an idea of what you’ll be paying back and for how long. If you play about with different amounts, you can see how much you can earn before you’re likely to pay back the full loan. You can also use the Student Calculator, powered by Brightside, it helps you to budget whilst your at Uni so you know how much money you need from one week to the next.
Talking about money
Of course it is not just a question of fees and accommodation. In this interview Kawai, a student from Wales, discusses how she copes with money at university, how she affords clothes as well as textbooks and why she chose to go to a local university and live at home.
[peckplayer id=”1″ sound=”http://careerstalk.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/kowie_money.mp3″]