I can&#x27;t afford university...

If you are only £200 short, it might be worth looking for overtime at your current job. You could also ask friends or family (aside from your parents) for a small loan. I would also check if there are any bursaries available for your course which could help.

You could also see if you have unused or unwanted items at home which you could sell - Facebook Marketplace, Amazon or Ebay - the money you get could contribute to your uni fund :smile:

Reply 4

FloralHybrid

It’s not that simple.

As someone in a similar situation, a household income of £60k entitles me to around £3k maintenance loan. But it doesn’t take into account the fact my parents have no disposable income left for me to have. It’s not that they don’t want to help me, is that they can’t.

Reply 5

Muttley79

Original post by FloralHybrid

It’s not that simple.

As someone in a similar situation, a household income of £60k entitles me to around £3k maintenance loan. But it doesn’t take into account the fact my parents have no disposable income left for me to have. It’s not that they don’t want to help me, is that they can’t.

Sorry I just don't believe this. They won't be feeding you at uni so they will save money. They won't need to wash your clothes or anything else they normally wash of yours - they save money. They won;t need to heat your room; they save money.

They are not being fair ... or truthful.

Reply 6

FloralHybrid

Original post by Muttley79

Sorry I just don't believe this. They won't be feeding you at uni so they will save money. They won't need to wash your clothes or anything else they normally wash of yours - they save money. They won;t need to heat your room; they save money.

They are not being fair ... or truthful.

Yep, with the money they save from not feeding me is true.

I’m in a family with 4 siblings. 2 currently share and will be moving into my room once I go to Uni. So the heated room remains. My clothes get washed in a bundle with others, that won’t change.

They may be able to help me out with a few hundred pounds a year, sure. At most, 1k. But unless they cut back in other areas, they don’t have any money left over for me. It’s not about being untruthful.

Let alone the fact that I don’t expect my parents to have to just give me money. The government should allow me to chose how much of a loan I want, because I physically can’t afford university without taking a year or two out and working full time.

I shouldn’t *have* to make that choice.

Reply 7

Muttley79

Original post by FloralHybrid

. My clothes get washed in a bundle with others, that won’t change..

Of course it will, they will be doing fewer washes .. one fewer set of sheets and none of your clothes.
It does make a difference - they can spare some money for you even if it's just what they are saving.

Reply 8

FloralHybrid

Original post by Muttley79

Of course it will, they will be doing fewer washes .. one fewer set of sheets and none of your clothes.
It does make a difference - they can spare some money for you even if it's just what they are saving.

Okay, yep. Pennies saved turns into pounds and it makes a difference. You’re more than right.

But it doesn’t mean my parents are going to scrape together £7,000 a year. Which is about what I’ll need to live off, not include my maintenance loan.

The fact remains, I’ll have to work full time before I can afford university.

Reply 9

Adz2042

18

Couch-surf comes to mind.
Or see if companies will sponsor you to study at university, so you can afford to live in halls/ accommodation.

Reply 10

Muttley79

Original post by FloralHybrid

Okay, yep. Pennies saved turns into pounds and it makes a difference. You’re more than right.

But it doesn’t mean my parents are going to scrape together £7,000 a year. Which is about what I’ll need to live off, not include my maintenance loan.

The fact remains, I’ll have to work full time before I can afford university.

Why do you need £10 000? You can live on far less than that.

Reply 11

Original post by FloralHybrid

Okay, yep. Pennies saved turns into pounds and it makes a difference. You’re more than right.

But it doesn’t mean my parents are going to scrape together £7,000 a year. Which is about what I’ll need to live off, not include my maintenance loan.

The fact remains, I’ll have to work full time before I can afford university.

Your parents must be having some luxuries to be getting be hitting 0 at the end of every month with a household income of 60k ie takeaways, buying lunches out, expensive contract phones, buying clothes frequently, buying designer clothes etc

even something like 1 takeaway a week for the 6 of you would be about the same as your food + social money at uni

where are you going to uni? I dont know any student that needed 10k to live on unless they were spending stupid amounts of money and had expensive accommodation (except in london)

You have a few options

1. sit down with your parents to find out where you all as a family can make sacrifices on things so that they can give you a bit of help
2. take a gap year and save some money
3. if you truly need £10k to live on then apply to a uni where it is cheaper to live

Also it is worth noting you wont have much time as a nursing student to do paid work as you dont get the long holidays that other students on different courses get (I think the 2 people who i live with that do nursing now got 3-4 weeks off across the whole year)

Edit - I have just seen that you said your accommodation was £3200 (you said you got 3k loan?, I assume this includes bills btw), there is NO WAY you need £6800 to live on for everything else, £20 a week for food and £20 a week for social is only £2080 for a whole year

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 12

ajj2000

Original post by abbiealexander20

Okay so I am set on being a child's nurse I have worked hard to get the grades and am hoping to be accepted however I have looked into accommodation and even with my maintenance loan I would be £200 short for shared bedroom accommodation! My parents earn over the limit so I am not entitled to anything else however they are also not going to help me out financially at all. Living at home is not an option as all the uni's are way too far from where I live. I already work now and plan to work through the summer to save however because of my course I have been told I will be unable to work? I'm really stuck on what to do, I am desperate to do this course but I don't get how if I cannot afford accommodation let alone food....and I would still like to have some sort of life and be able to go out for a drink every so months....Thanks guys

Two thoughts. Which university are you looking at? Some cities are far cheaper to live in than others.

Also, you don't need to go to university immediately. Check the rules for loans following a period of financial independence. I think its about three years. That could be a far better option than struggling to work and study at the same time.

Reply 13

Swagio

12

Original post by madmadmax321

Also it is worth noting you wont have much time as a nursing student to do paid work as you dont get the long holidays that other students on different courses get (I think the 2 people who i live with that do nursing now got 3-4 weeks off across the whole year)

I disagree in regards to paid work. You don't have much holiday time I get 4 weeks summer, 2 Christmas and 1 Easter (standard time). But a lot of my cohort work and very hard because we're mature/ independent students and have no choice. I'm savvy with how I work, I'm on the nurse bank and I'll do 2 Saturday night shifts at +44/88% and 2 twilight at +44% and can take home around £450 a month, but it's tough on top of placement. In fact whilst on placement many of my friends have 1 or less days off a week. I personally also worked evenings after a community shift at my second job and I also worked Christmas Eve, day, Boxing Day, nye and ny day last year all to fund uni. So actually we work a heck of lot. I guess I wanted to make the point that 1. We don't have much time but we still work due to necessity and it is totally possible and 2. It's the reality of the course and uni in general. I can't get by on my grant alone, have 0 parental support and rely on work and an overdraft. But it's worth it to do what you love and those great moments on placement, uni or with colleagues makes it so worth it.

Reply 14

Original post by Swagio

I disagree in regards to paid work. You don't have much holiday time I get 4 weeks summer, 2 Christmas and 1 Easter (standard time). But a lot of my cohort work and very hard because we're mature/ independent students and have no choice. I'm savvy with how I work, I'm on the nurse bank and I'll do 2 Saturday night shifts at +44/88% and 2 twilight at +44% and can take home around £450 a month, but it's tough on top of placement. In fact whilst on placement many of my friends have 1 or less days off a week. I personally also worked evenings after a community shift at my second job and I also worked Christmas Eve, day, Boxing Day, nye and ny day last year all to fund uni. So actually we work a heck of lot. I guess I wanted to make the point that 1. We don't have much time but we still work due to necessity and it is totally possible and 2. It's the reality of the course and uni in general. I can't get by on my grant alone, have 0 parental support and rely on work and an overdraft. But it's worth it to do what you love and those great moments on placement, uni or with colleagues makes it so worth it.

I can only go on what I have observed from my friends that do a nursing degree :smile:

You can only do that work if it is there at the specific times that you can do so that can be an issue depending on where the op is but that is a good suggestion I guess

I disagree that is it a reality of university in general

Reply 15

Swagio

12

Original post by madmadmax321

I can only go on what I have observed from my friends that do a nursing degree :smile:

You can only do that work if it is there at the specific times that you can do so that can be an issue depending on where the op is but that is a good suggestion I guess

I disagree that is it a reality of university in general

A lot of student nurses work on the nurse bank as we can pick shifts and it's no bad pay if you do Saturday nights or Sundays.
It's reality in my neck of the woods 😅 coming from a poorer background you can definitely be at a loss and need to work a lot.
Thing with nursing too is a lot of us are older (never thought I'd use that term to describe myself lol), but means a lot of us have mortgages, pre uni loans, kids to support, child care costs and all those house running costs that seem to exist as you get older.
But I guess it just shows there really are options and possibilities because that's the reality of uni for a lot of people, but we seem to manage it somehow!! Just! Haha.

Reply 16

offsetWHOOP

7

Original post by FloralHybrid

It’s not that simple.

As someone in a similar situation, a household income of £60k entitles me to around £3k maintenance loan. But it doesn’t take into account the fact my parents have no disposable income left for me to have. It’s not that they don’t want to help me, is that they can’t.

It's almost like you middle class morons want to be in financial difficulty.

Reply 17

The same could be said for the other way round, why should students who come from a poorer background have to borrow more money (so get in more debt) just because their parents earn less (and that doesnt mean they dont work as hard as people who earn more either)

Reply 18

offsetWHOOP

7

Keep crying because 60k mummy and daddy cant provide for you.

Reply 19