As the excitement following the latest crop of ‘A’ level results subsides, parents and students will be facing the financial realities of university education. Last week, NatWest released figures, based on a major survey of sixth-formers, which put the cost of a three-year degree at £33,512.
Even after taking grants, parental contributions and part-time work into consideration, students will graduate with an average £14,779 of debt. The only way round this is to start planning, says Jeremy Leach in The Observer.
Students should start by working out how much income they have. Tot up what is coming in and when from loans, bursaries, jobs, parents, etc (Nusonline.co.uk has an online reckoner) and divide this by the number of weeks you will be at university. Then list essential outgoings – rent, bills, food, clothes, transport and entertainment.
Look at each item and think how you can reduce it. Food is an unavoidable expense, but you can save a lot by bulk buying with friends or housemates and avoiding ready meals. Course materials, from textbooks to art materials, can be very expensive, so get to know your way around the library and get any discount cards you are eligible for (the National Union of Students NUS Extra card costs £7 and offers discounts at more than 40 outlets, from Amazon to TopShop).
Opening the right bank account is key. Avoid the gimmicks and find an account with a free overdraft facility. The best buy, says Lorna Bourke in the Evening Standard, looks like Co-op Bank’s student account, which has an interest-free overdraft of up to £2,000 a year, with no fees for unauthorised spending. RBS’s student account is more generous (£2,500 limit and 2% on credit balances), but it does charge for unauthorised borrowing.
All students should invest in insurance to spare themselves the cost of replacing stolen mobiles and laptops. Policies start at just £18 a year and some (such as More Than) allow parents to make part of their cover available to their children at no extra cost.
Most students will need to work to make ends meet, but casual bar work during term-time may not be the answer. The Times’s Tim Cartwright recommends an internship. This is an extended period of work experience, usually lasting between one and three months, where the student is trusted to do more than make coffee.
As well as earning more than the minimum wage, students gain valuable experience and something useful to put on their CVs. The best-paid (and most sought-after) internships are with the big City firms; the likes of Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, for instance, pay more than £500 a week. Your university careers service should have details of holiday placements, or try www.milkround.com.