So you’ve finished your A-Levels or equivalent exams, have been bought all sorts of personalised gifts to celebrate and you’ve got provisional acceptances at a number of Universities, so all that leaves is just you waiting on your results? Wrong! You should be busy sorting out your student finances, especially if you haven’t done so already!
While all students are entitled to a minimum level of government support for their education, the amounts can vary quite considerably, depending on household income and whether you live at home while studying. But there are additional means of financial help for both full and part time students.
Even if you haven’t been offered a place, you should get your application in as early as you possibly can. You could be entitled to tuition fee loans of up to 3,290 per year, which would completely cover the cost of tuition. Other loans available include up to 4,950 as a maintenance loan and a special support grant worth up to 2,906.
The most recent figures from the government puts the cost of being a student at approximately 11,000 per year. Right now, you might be thinking ‘wow’. But once the cost of food, rent, utility bills and, of course, tuition fees is taken into consideration, that bank balance won’t look nearly as healthy. Don’t worry, though, a little careful planning and you will be able to get a good balance between studying and, well, partying.
Firstly, you will need to choose your bank or building society in which to store your new student riches. At the start of every new academic year, the banks and building societies compete with each other to get all those student loans and grants into their coffers, so take a look around to see which incentives are on offer – railcards, laptops, large interest-free overdrafts and so on.
Now that is behind you, the next step is to calculate your costs of living. Basically, all you do is plan out your ‘income and ‘expenses’. Take the money coming in from parents, grants, loans, maybe a job and then you need to take a look at what is going out.
Aside from tuition fees, rent is likely to be the largest expense each month. I suggest opening a second account and putting the rent money into this so you can be sure that it will get paid. This way you’ll know just how much you can spend throughout each month.
Students can start to save money by learning to cook and by taking advantage of special student discounts in shops, bars, restaurants and cinemas. Becoming a student is all about learning new things, and dealing with student finances can be a steep learning curve, especially if you waste all your money in the first few months! By basically being a bit savvy with your money, being a student needn’t be such a hardship!
Matt Greene can barely remember, but does remember he didn’t get any cool personalised gifts like this personalised beer glass when he graduated.