Weekly/Monthly budget for University

[Guest55]

'Industry' is a loose description of what opportunities are on offer ... there are shorter paid placements.

Has he looked here: https://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or here: https://targetjobs.co.uk/internships" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Other ways of finding them are available ...

[doodles]

He isn't interested in industry, but in research. He isn't doing a degree with includes a year out in industry, so can't apply for a years placement even if he wanted to. He wants to go into research but wants to spend a few weeks in a research department to be sure that is the route he wants to take. The only way to do this is to apply for the summer placements on offer at a variety of unis, both here and abroad. This will also help when he applies for PHD places for after he graduates. He has researched all the option quite thoroughly and has a list of those he wants to apply to along with the application open and closing dates - he knows exactly what he wants to do.

My only point was that this would mean we may have to help him out a bit more in the 4th year as he won't be able to work next summer

It sounds as if your DS has a very carefully considered plan and I hope he gets the summer placement he wants. Good luck to him.

[Loopyloulou]

LLL - that just isn't logical is it? You say you want to put them on par with everyone else then give them cars and insurance
Cars are a liability at uni btw ...

They rarely take their cars to university, so they are on a par with the poorest (which, I happily accept, is not the same thing as being on a par with everyone else) whilst at university.
Cars are a liability everywhere, but where we live they are a practical necessity. That or horses I suppose.

[Guest55]

We live in a village with irregular buses but DS did not have his own car [which he bought] until he had a job post uni. Why do they need their own cars now?! They sit unused for half a year ...

[Loopyloulou]

...but not for the other half.

[Amber]

DD has her car at university. She has it there largely so she can drive home when she fancies it and not be subject, as she has been on many occasions, to nightmare journeys at the hands of train operators. She also spends a lot of time out in the countryside and enjoys the freedom she has with a car; she volunteers for two separate organisations as well. And uses her car to take her flatmates to do food shopping. She did have 2 years between school and university and became used to a lot of independence. I don't think you can make blanket rules on what is or is not appropriate for students from different backgrounds across a huge range of institutions. DS is about to go to university and his car is staying here. He will not take it for the full 3 years as the circumstances are different.

[Tinkers]

Here in Reading, most if not all of the halls don’t have parking and don’t (in theory) allow students to have cars.
In practice what happens is they park them on local residential roads, as I don’t think he uni police it. Which doesn’t go down well.
However the roads near the uni have or will have permit parking. Only two permits per house and the car will have to be registered at the address. I suspect most students will either be parking their cars much further away or leaving them at home. Even the ones who live in student houses rather than halls.


The info from Bath Uni we got at the weekend also said that students living in halls on campus or living in certain postcodes are not allowed cars. However I don’t know how well that is policed.

[Reading Mum]

As a resident of one of those local roads it is a nightmare. Roll on residents parking in the spring.
DD will get a cheap runabout as she does lots of music activities across town with late finishes which mean that I have to be a taxi driver and often have to 'flex' my work hours to get her to the start of them. She also volunteers somewhere that public transport does not serve at all. Neither of our cars are suitable for a learner/new driver.
Bristol uni, which we visited, seemed very geared up to not need a car. There was a coach laid on to the other campus and you could walk to the station from the halls. Cambridge said no cars within 5 miles of the city and, again, you just wouldn't need one.
The car will likely stay at home during term time but will be needed for the 38 weeks of EMS she will have to do in the holidays. I expect we will need to insure it as the EMS will limit her ability to get holiday jobs. She can certainly try to get a term time job to keep some pennies in the coffers.
We know she will get the minimum maintenance loan of £4k ish so I expect we will top it up to the max amount she might have got if we didn't earn too much. We will then just review. I don't want her to miss out on great opportunities for want of a small cash injection but I also want her to learn to budget and make choices on where the money ought to sensibly be spent.

[Guest55]

Southampton had to introduce resident parking around the uni to stop students parking; each year the distance seems to increase.

Has no-one heard of car-sharing? Its very bad for a car to sit unused for months.

[kenyancowgirl]

I imagine that having a car at uni depends on whether the student can afford to keep it there (fuel/insurnace and aso any parking restrictions). Plus different courses, of course - for Medicine there are a lot of placements and, depending on the institution, these placements can be pretty rural, so having a car would be pretty essential - ditto, I imagine, some veterinary courses. I have no idea whether DS1 plans to take his car to university or not.

The reason he has a car now is that, with the price of the bus pass, (and the fact that as that only covers one bus home at the end of the day but due to study afternoons and sports after school, he rarely uses the bus home, and can bring his brother back for me), I can actually insure it fully comp, and fuel it for the same price as the bus pass/my travel to get them when they can't get the bus home. Simple economics from our point of view.

I do think it is up to individuals how they run their family income - as long as it doesn't actually affect anyone else, it isn't anyone else's business - and I can see that student finance is incredibly personal as it depends on so many factors. Thank you to those who have shared how they do it - although I am often referring people to the various finance streams, it is very different when you are applying to do it for your own child and has been very useful hearing that most people use the same top level and work back from that.