Student Finance - what works for us!

Financially Preparing for University: A Parent’s Guide to Supporting Your Student

Written By MoneyMoolah.co.uk

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As parents who have and are currently navigating the full journey of supporting children through university everything from searching for universities to enduring the ups and downs of academic life and even postgrad studies—we’ve gained a lot of insight that we feel is worth sharing. One area that we found particularly challenging (and perhaps you will too) is financially preparing for university. With student finance applications just around the corner, it’s a good time to reflect on the financial aspects and offer some practical advice.

Understanding Student Finance and What to Expect

For many students, the first major financial hurdle is the student finance application. As March approaches, student finance opens up, and this means it’s time for students to declare their personal circumstances to receive a maintenance loan and university fees support. The university fees are typically now around £9,500 per year, but this amount is usually separate from the maintenance loan, which is meant to cover living expenses.

In our own experiences, we found that the student maintenance loan doesn't fully cover the cost of accommodation, let alone anything else for living expenses. This reality firstly led us to encourage our children to find part-time jobs and save up some extra money to make sure they had a financial cushion for the nice things like social activities and other essentials.

How Much Should We Contribute as Parents?

One of the big questions we had as parents was how much we should reasonably contribute to our children’s university expenses. While we knew we were committed to helping, we were unsure what would be appropriate. Conversations with other parents revealed that many were in the same boat, with most feeling the need to help out financially while still encouraging independence.

Through a lot of research and trial and error, we came up with a system that worked for us and might be helpful for other parents and students as well.

Our Approach to Financial Support

When our child’s student maintenance loan came through, we made the decision to manage it carefully. Our children were happy for us to keep it in a bank account for them. ( note the university fees approximately £9500 subject to change are paid directly to the university - by student finance ) Maintenance loan is paid in three termly instalments. (The minimum maintenance loan living outside of London depending on household income for 2025-2026 is £4915 ) We divided the money by the weeks remaining until the next payment allowing for student holidays such as Christmas and Easter, this is particularly important when living in a student house as rent continues to be paid during the holidays. The loan was paid directly into our bank account, and we took charge of allocating it. First and foremost, we used the loan to pay for accommodation. Student halls typically cost around £600-£700 a month, and the maintenance loan would cover approximately £400 of that. We then subsidized the remaining balance, which worked out to be around £280 per month for accommodation and another £70 per week for living costs. For us on the lowest available maintenance loan this was a total cost to us of approximately £560 per month.

For us hiring our caravan out on Camplify has helped towards this extra cost and of course, entrepreneurial ventures such as Moneymoolah.co.uk. We look forward to sharing more of our student journey with you. Don't forget to check out our calendar of up and coming articles. We appreciate every subscriber to our Instagram and Facebook too!