student accom

Hello , just wanted to ask a question about student accom. Since I'll be receiving the max amount for student finance (hopefully), won't that just go towards the price of the accommodation? Or do they just give me the money and it's up to me to pay the rent? Or is it dependent on the type of place I'm living in? I was just browsing and looking at prices and saw on average around minimum £250 rent per week. Is it up to me to pay for all of that each week, or does everyone living in the accommodation contribute too? Also, will I be responsible for paying for things like water bills and electricity, or does the university cover that? I just want to know if living in student accommodation is even possible for me for 3 whole years, because looking at how expensive it is, I feel like even getting a job won't help out much. Any help is appreciated, thank you :smile:

Original post by georgezra34

Hello , just wanted to ask a question about student accom. Since I'll be receiving the max amount for student finance (hopefully), won't that just go towards the price of the accommodation? Or do they just give me the money and it's up to me to pay the rent? Or is it dependent on the type of place I'm living in? I was just browsing and looking at prices and saw on average around minimum £250 rent per week. Is it up to me to pay for all of that each week, or does everyone living in the accommodation contribute too? Also, will I be responsible for paying for things like water bills and electricity, or does the university cover that? I just want to know if living in student accommodation is even possible for me for 3 whole years, because looking at how expensive it is, I feel like even getting a job won't help out much. Any help is appreciated, thank you :smile:

Hi there!

Student finance will pay your tuition fee, which covers your course, to your university. Your maintenance loan covers living costs and will be paid directly to your bank. It gets divided into three and paid to you in three instalments spread through the academic year (usually around September, January, and April). It's up to you to pay your rent, every university will have a different system but usually, this is in 3 instalments across the year, just after each maintenance loan payment. If you go for private accommodation, it might be monthly.

Most university-owned student accommodation will include bills, which also differs from university to university. The website/page for each accommodation will likely have this information. The £250 you've seen advertised, assuming you're looking at student accommodation, will likely be per person per week.

Usually after the first year, people tend to look for private landlords to rent from. Your university will likely have companies/landlords it recommends. It might also be an option to stay in halls after your first year, if that's what you want, and if your university offers this. Not all universities offer accommodation after the first year.

To give you an idea - I get close to the maximum maintenance loan. That covers my rent and bills, but I work to get money for food etc. There's a student finance calculator you can use on the Gov UK website (link here) to look at how much you might get per year from SFE, then if you divide this by 52 you can use that as a rough estimate of how much you'll have each week.

Hope this helps🤗
-Kiera (Student Ambassador, York St. John University)

Reply 2

georgezra34

OP

8

Original post by YSJstudents

Hi there!
Student finance will pay your tuition fee, which covers your course, to your university. Your maintenance loan covers living costs and will be paid directly to your bank. It gets divided into three and paid to you in three instalments spread through the academic year (usually around September, January, and April). It's up to you to pay your rent, every university will have a different system but usually, this is in 3 instalments across the year, just after each maintenance loan payment. If you go for private accommodation, it might be monthly.
Most university-owned student accommodation will include bills, which also differs from university to university. The website/page for each accommodation will likely have this information. The £250 you've seen advertised, assuming you're looking at student accommodation, will likely be per person per week.
Usually after the first year, people tend to look for private landlords to rent from. Your university will likely have companies/landlords it recommends. It might also be an option to stay in halls after your first year, if that's what you want, and if your university offers this. Not all universities offer accommodation after the first year.
To give you an idea - I get close to the maximum maintenance loan. That covers my rent and bills, but I work to get money for food etc. There's a student finance calculator you can use on the Gov UK website (link here) to look at how much you might get per year from SFE, then if you divide this by 52 you can use that as a rough estimate of how much you'll have each week.
Hope this helps🤗
-Kiera (Student Ambassador, York St. John University)

Hello, thank you for your response. I just wanted to ask if you think it'll be possible for me to live in student accom and not struggle financially due to the support I would be getting. I used the student finance calculator and it said the max maintenance loan would be about 10.2k (I'm not sure if this is for the full 3 years or just one), however assuming that it's just for one, I divided this by 52 and the total came about to £196 weekly. A lot of rooms I've seen on average take a sum of over £200 weekly, so how would this even be possible for me to afford. I assume I would eventually get a job but it would take me some time to find one, and I also don't want to spend all my time working instead of paying attention to my studies. I would move to the student halls during the first year so surely that would be cheaper? Thanks again for your response.

Original post by georgezra34

Hello, thank you for your response. I just wanted to ask if you think it'll be possible for me to live in student accom and not struggle financially due to the support I would be getting. I used the student finance calculator and it said the max maintenance loan would be about 10.2k (I'm not sure if this is for the full 3 years or just one), however assuming that it's just for one, I divided this by 52 and the total came about to £196 weekly. A lot of rooms I've seen on average take a sum of over £200 weekly, so how would this even be possible for me to afford. I assume I would eventually get a job but it would take me some time to find one, and I also don't want to spend all my time working instead of paying attention to my studies. I would move to the student halls during the first year so surely that would be cheaper? Thanks again for your response.

Hi again!

In my experience, almost everyone I know at university has a job, it is quite common. The 10.2k would be per year. However, it's worth noting that most student accommodations have contracts that last anywhere from 30-42 weeks. For example, if you were going for a 42-week contract that costs 180 per week, you'd pay £7,560 for the full year. If you went for that sort of contract, you'd go home over the summer, which is around 2-3 months long at university. It's also worth noting the academic year is typically around 24-26 weeks, hence the shorter accommodation contracts. This makes student accommodation really ideal, and it can work out cheaper over the year.

It's also worth checking if the university you apply to has extra funding. Many universities have extra funding available in the form of bursaries/scholarships - this is money you don't pay back. I'll put the York St. John page here as an example.
York St. John Scholarships

Hope this helps🤗
-Kiera

Reply 4

Casita_Student

3

Original post by georgezra34

Hello , just wanted to ask a question about student accom. Since I'll be receiving the max amount for student finance (hopefully), won't that just go towards the price of the accommodation? Or do they just give me the money and it's up to me to pay the rent? Or is it dependent on the type of place I'm living in? I was just browsing and looking at prices and saw on average around minimum £250 rent per week. Is it up to me to pay for all of that each week, or does everyone living in the accommodation contribute too? Also, will I be responsible for paying for things like water bills and electricity, or does the university cover that? I just want to know if living in student accommodation is even possible for me for 3 whole years, because looking at how expensive it is, I feel like even getting a job won't help out much. Any help is appreciated, thank you :smile:

Hello,

The financial aspect is definitely the hardest part to balance in this experience, so it’s good that you ask for advice. It’s not unfeasible for you to cruise through your uni life with nothing but money you’re sent as allowance and rent from your parents or relatives, etc. But, if that’s not possible as it most likely is, then a job will serve you well. A job will usually cover all your rent and costs and even leave a little room in the budget for treating yourself.
If you do your math and find that you might still be cutting it too close, then I’d advice looking for accommodation that’s more affordable, as the one you’ve chosen might be far too expensive even by standards.
Good luck!

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