Student costs in London

[Countdown]

How much does it cost to study in London (excluding tuition fees). I'm guessing rent is the main cost, plus Oyster card, plus food and socialising.

Would £20k per annum be over cautious or realistic?

[ATG]

Sounds a bit much. I'd have thought halls of residence would be around 1k a month. Bike, oyster card and groceries don't add a huge amount. It's the non essentials that'll take you from 13 or 14k up to whatever level you want.

[Djtemeka]

Walking around Greenwich uni today and peeked at the estate agents ads in the Windows. 3 bed student share. £2400pcm.
£800 each! Loooooool!

[driverrob]

Not that I'm old but, when I was at UCL, I had a grant of £123 per term which had to cover everything! And it did.

[Digitalize]

Djtemeka said:

Walking around Greenwich uni today and peeked at the estate agents ads in the Windows. 3 bed student share. £2400pcm.
£800 each! Loooooool!

I wasn't paying much less in Bath, was about £800 with bills between 3. Students get extra money for living in London too, to offset the increased cost.

[Simes205]

driverrob said:

Not that I'm old but, when I was at UCL, I had a grant of £123 per term which had to cover everything! And it did.

Same here.
I traded off travelling in from zone 5 and paying £180 per month rent to having a £70 a week room in zone 1 next door to college...., in 1992!

[driverrob]

Simes205 said:

Same here.
I traded off travelling in from zone 5 and paying £180 per month rent to having a £70 a week room in zone 1 next door to college...., in 1992!

1992? - youngster. My termly grant would have only covered you for a week

[Ozzie Osmond]

Countdown said:

Would £20k per annum be over cautious or realistic?

Depends whether it includes the tuition fees....

£20,000 divided by 40 weeks = £500 a week.

[Countdown]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Countdown said:

Would £20k per annum be over cautious or realistic?

Depends whether it includes the tuition fees....

£20,000 divided by 40 weeks = £500 a week.

Excludes tuition

Rent looks like the main expense and it's £200/wk for 52 weeks which is c£10k

[Rangeroverover]

not in London but in Exeter all our student ASTs are 48 week, in Bristol 51 week, so I suspect unlikely you will get a 40 week tenancy, unless maybe the landlord wants to AIRbnb it during summer break, which would be worthwhile in Greenwhich but not out here amongst the turnips

[Ozzie Osmond]

A hall of residence in London would be about £200 a week for an en-suite single room (including meals) and charged for 40 weeks. There are also cheaper options if students can find a flat to share.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/accommod...

[Countdown]

Thanks.

He didn't like UCL. He's looking at ICL for his 2nd choice. I hadn't realised Halls would work out slightly cheaper (most of them seem to do the 40 weeks rather than the 52). I'm guessing he would need to move out during the holidays?

So - £8k for rent. Would £100/week be enough for everything else?

[Digitalize]

Halls will be the 40 weeks not 52 usually, but it's only really an option for the first year. It's a much more social choice but some people just hate halls. They tend to work out to be a similar price to a 52 week house though, at least outside of London.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Countdown said:

I hadn't realised Halls would work out slightly cheaper (most of them seem to do the 40 weeks rather than the 52). I'm guessing he would need to move out during the holidays??

Yes, avoiding 12 weeks of payments (a quarter of a year!) makes a big difference. A student has the accommodation available for the full 40 weeks so doesn't have to move out at Christmas or Easter. I suspect the included catering would be term-time only.

Countdown said:

So - £8k for rent. Would £100/week be enough for everything else?

Sounds doable but tight. For instance, a £50 text-book would make a big hole. A holiday job or part-time job would help....

[Zingari]

How are students expected to pay for all this I wonder? Based on the governments premise that everyone can go to university, even for a family that is on low income/benefits the loans on offer dont offer enough.

Given that these are now loans for fees/maintenance there shouldn't be the expectation families are to part fund students - as indeed some can and do. I can afford it and dont. My daughter made a life choice as an adult to go to univeristy and therefore as an adult the expectation is the costs are met elsewhere. Granted I do help out, she works and chose to commute to mitigate costs and no doubt I may help out to pay back any loans if they're not written off to some extent. She's only there as the fking professional body only recognises the academic qualification and the government can't be bothered to look beyond their navel to expand apprenticeship schemes.

The academic institutions played a blinder here with the government. HMG dont have to prop them up anymore and from what I can see there's no governance over staffing/structure. Most, if not all are overstaffed and unregulated.

[z4RRSchris]

i was a student in London, 2006 - 2011.

Accommodation was about 160PW on a 42 week contract.

I had about £120PW left over. did bits and bobs on the side to generate spare cash.

there are cheap places to go out and cheap places to eat.

[tr7v8]

Niece is a student at Institute of Tropical Hygiene. For her 1 year masters the tuition fees are £20K, she pays £650 for a room with 2 other girls in Stockwell. Commuting is 30 mins or so on the underground.
She has a evening job in a pub & does as many nights as she can. Her parents support her as well & paid the Uni fees.

[Revisitph]

One of our children was living in Bloomsbury close to where we lived as students all those years ago and needed £1100p.m. to live there and, now that landlords expect 12/12 contracts, not September to July as we were able to get... so £9k fees plus £1100x12 = £22,200 p.a.

Edited by Revisitph on Sunday 16th October 21:25

Edited by Revisitph on Monday 17th October 03:28

[brickwall]

In reality, it is extremely hard to be a student without some form of parental help. Even more so in London.

When I was at Oxford (under the old £3k fee regime) the basic "living costs" student loan wouldn't even cover rent (let alone any other living costs), despite rent being subsidised by the college's other income AND only having to pay for 25 weeks a year.

Back then the standard "living costs" student loan was ~£3.5k per year - I think my actual living costs were not far off double that.

[DonkeyApple]

Countdown said:

How much does it cost to study in London (excluding tuition fees). I'm guessing rent is the main cost, plus Oyster card, plus food and socialising.

Would £20k per annum be over cautious or realistic?

Unless the university in London offers the absolute best degree for the chosen subject and/or has genuinely superior employment and career prospects then I would genuinely avoid it. The costs are huge. Not just rent but all the ancillaries of life.

We all legged it to the provinces for our degrees. The ones who stayed were mostly wasters with parents who'd lob money at funding their party lifestyle or thickies whose parents were buying connections as a last resort. I really don't think too much has changed.