Student Hardship 2022 - How Was It For You?

[cosmicbike]

I never went to Uni 'proper', fortunately the company I served my apprenticeship with sent me on day release but only to HND. Over 25 years ago and never felt the need to go to degree, hindsight is a wonderful thing...

My eldest is due to start his engineering degree next year. We plan to max out on all the loans he can get, but ignoring course fee's he will only get £4.5k living allowance as it's means tested, and that won't even cover halls of residence for year 1 so I guess Dad is working a few more years yet.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Uni jobs, oh yes! Spent one easter vacation chucking huge bits of frozen meat into a massive meat grinder all day long. Couldn't wait to get back for the summer term ...

 

[oldwheels]

I think tuition fees are government paid for Scottish students studying in Scotland. You must have been resident here for a minimum period of I think 4 years. Non residents do have to pay and Scottish students only get free tuition within Scotland and not if studying elsewhere.

 

[BoldonLad]

Left school at 16 (1963), and, started work within a couple of weeks. Employer gave one day per week, day release to obtain ONC then HNC. There were also evening sessions, typically 18:00 - 21:00, which were "in your own time". The deal was, you paid the fees yourself, each year, and, if you passed the end of year exams, employer refunded the fees, if you quit, or failed, then, no refund.

Later, I switched into IT. Initially, lack of formal qualifications was not an impediment, but, as the number of trained people increased, formal qualifications began to to be a drawback. So, took a degree via Open University, studying in my own time, and paying my own fees, whilst working (by this stage, I was married, with three children, mortgage, car loan, etc etc etc).

 

[DCLane]

I am feeling slightly guilty now that I only went to a handful of 9am Building Services lectures over the three years. Maybe paying an arm and a leg for tuition focuses the mind a bit better?

You'd think so, but universities have a major issue with getting students to attend unfortunately.

My eldest is due to start his engineering degree next year. We plan to max out on all the loans he can get, but ignoring course fee's he will only get £4.5k living allowance as it's means tested, and that won't even cover halls of residence for year 1 so I guess Dad is working a few more years yet.

Son no. 2's paying £8,200 for his self-catered accommodation plus parking space in Nottingham. It can go up to £15,000 depending on type. Leeds is similarly priced.

 

[fossyant]

Aye, £6 a pint in Alberts Schloss these days, thats 3 x 1/3 pints .... oh, and £6.50 for a pint of Guiness at the Midland, bargain!

I was in Hatch under the Mancunian Way. For those that don't know, its a bunch of shipping containers under a fly over. Retailers trade out of them. It's pretty cool, but bloody expensive even for staff of the Uni.

 

[fossyant]

Its a whole different ball game now (referring to those mid 50's and above).

The Govt wont get the fees back generally, it's another tax. Advice is let it go to the loan rather than pay it, unless you are very wealthy.

Universities have moved on an incredible amount. We've invested massive amounts in the Estate and it shows, very popular. We take all the student surveys etc, internal surveys, and graduate outcomes very seriously. We put resources into areas not getting the best results. Its alot different from even just 10 years ago.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

University student in the 80s

I think back then a full grant was £1800 per annum. Which is £4734 in today’s money according to Bank of England inflation calculator. I seem to remember getting a grant of £1,200 then my mother made up the shortfall of £600. Tuition fees were paid by local authority if memory serves. If I remember correctly we had 3 terms of 10 weeks each with 4 week breaks between terms.

Thus I had £1,800 to spend over the 30 weeks of the terms, or £60 a week less train costs to / from Uni at start / end of each term . University accommodation was about £15-20 per week, with no electric gas to pay, private rental was around £35-40 a week. Pre mass adoption of mobile phones, no costs there.

If in University accommodation I therefore had about £40-45 a week to cover food , going out, travel etc. In private accommodation about £20-25 to spend on bills, food, going out, travel each week. The latter being £65.76 in today’s money.

I either cycled or walked everywhere or hitch hiked to get further afield. Other than university mountaineering club trips on coaches or minibuses. Only sponsored / rich students had cars, very few student cars about.

A pint cost 65p in the student bar, and we’d stuff the pool table pockets with newspaper to play all night for very little money.

Going for a coffee wasn’t a thing, but a weekly bar crawl was, and always a student party to attend or gate crash if you weren’t invited.

 

[wafter]

Where did you do yours? I'm a Brunel alumna. I did a foundation year because I flubbed my A-levels, but in retrospect, if I'd had the right advice at school, I'd have done different A-levels and then done the foundation year. It covered the same stuff as A-levels, but in a much more practical way, which I really loved.

I did the Masters because there was stuff I wanted to do that I didn't have enough elective slots for in my final year of BEng. Namely composites, robotics, integrated manufacture and some other materials technology / stress analysis stuff.

Oops, and I forgot to mention that I was sponsored for my Masters by Reynard Cars - very little in the way of money, but technical support for my major project and parts for destructive testing. It was the same for my PhD, but then, I was sponsored by Mclaren.

I went to Oxford Brookes for my sins - great city, great engineering department / staff, terrible uni. How was Brunel? I always remember it as having a good rep for engineering.

Your experience sounds very familiar - I did the "wrong" A-levels so was up-sold the foundation year and found it to be a very worthwhile experience too - a great bridge between what I already knew and the first year, and yes - quite a lot of fun in places. I went on to do well in the first year, started struggling in the second and had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the third.

While this was partially due to my own issues the uni absolutely ruined the degree with cost-cutting and an abysmally managed campus change - my yeargroup taking the brunt of it all. We ended up with dispensation as a result - some coursework written off and IIRC exam grades moderated up because as a group we all did so badly. Had I not been so utterly burnt out by the end I might have considered a masters, but by that time I'd absolutely had enough. Despite all that many of us have gone on to lead normal, healthy lives - sadly I'm not one of them!


What was the specific field of your degree - mech or auto? I did automotive which (predictably) was basically mech with some engine and vehicle tech thrown in, which I found very interesting. I also liked the materials science and analytical stuff; we never touched robotics though and generally did little on electronics - which is probably a good thing as I have zero aptitude for it.

Great work with the sponsorship - both companies must have seen substantial value in your abilities to give you their backing. I think the lack of funding is par for the course in the motorsport world and it sounds like you did well from both. During my course Renault F1 offered a handful of industrial placements to the uni and the department put me forward for one; however the scheme was withdrawn (typically turbulent motorsport again!) so nobody went and tbh for me this was probably a good thing as I'd have struggled in the likely high-pressure environment.

What was the subject of your PhD? In principal I like the idea of returning to academia, although in practice I think I'd really struggle, and it's shocking to consider what little of the knowledge / skills I used to have remains after all these years..

 

[GuyBoden]

Changed my outlook on life, Beng Manchester Uni.

The posh kids were as thick as me.

 

[steverob]

Going to university is seen as a rite of passage by many schools, helping push numbers up. One of the things I always ask my first year students is "why did you choose this subject / university?" A small, but significant, number simply don't know what they want to do. They inevitably disengage early, fail and it becomes an expensive gap year.

This was exactly why I didn't end up going to uni (late 90's), because I didn't really know what I wanted to do outside of some vague notion of "something IT related" and feared that I'd not even make it through the first year due to a lack of motivation, which would be a waste of time and money.

I did have the A-level results I needed to get on a course that kind of interested me (although not as good results as I'd hoped for admittedly), but decided to take a year out to consider my options, then possibly apply for the year after. During that year I worked a temp filing job at a local council to earn me some cash, then six months later - just before I was about to fill out UCAS forms, an entry level vacancy came up in their IT department (which is probably the level I would have had to start at even if I'd had a degree), I interviewed for it and ended up getting it, which was then my foot in the door of the industry and I've never looked back.

 

[Reynard]

I went to Oxford Brookes for my sins - great city, great engineering department / staff, terrible uni. How was Brunel? I always remember it as having a good rep for engineering.

Your experience sounds very familiar - I did the "wrong" A-levels so was up-sold the foundation year and found it to be a very worthwhile experience too - a great bridge between what I already knew and the first year, and yes - quite a lot of fun in places. I went on to do well in the first year, started struggling in the second and had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the third.

While this was partially due to my own issues the uni absolutely ruined the degree with cost-cutting and an abysmally managed campus change - my yeargroup taking the brunt of it all. We ended up with dispensation as a result - some coursework written off and IIRC exam grades moderated up because as a group we all did so badly. Had I not been so utterly burnt out by the end I might have considered a masters, but by that time I'd absolutely had enough. Despite all that many of us have gone on to lead normal, healthy lives - sadly I'm not one of them!


What was the specific field of your degree - mech or auto? I did automotive which (predictably) was basically mech with some engine and vehicle tech thrown in, which I found very interesting. I also liked the materials science and analytical stuff; we never touched robotics though and generally did little on electronics - which is probably a good thing as I have zero aptitude for it.

Great work with the sponsorship - both companies must have seen substantial value in your abilities to give you their backing. I think the lack of funding is par for the course in the motorsport world and it sounds like you did well from both. During my course Renault F1 offered a handful of industrial placements to the uni and the department put me forward for one; however the scheme was withdrawn (typically turbulent motorsport again!) so nobody went and tbh for me this was probably a good thing as I'd have struggled in the likely high-pressure environment.

What was the subject of your PhD? In principal I like the idea of returning to academia, although in practice I think I'd really struggle, and it's shocking to consider what little of the knowledge / skills I used to have remains after all these years..

I really enjoyed Brunel - it was actually my first choice anyway, made on the basis of its good rep for science and engineering and the bonus was that it was within reasonable commuting distance from the then Casa Reynard. I ended up there for five years all told, and, for the most part, loved every minute. There were a few modules on my course I didn't enjoy, but they were mandatory for IMechE accreditation, so I just had to stick through it.

I didn't do the wrong A-levels (Pure & Applied Maths, Chemistry, Physics), but I was going through a tough time mentally and I didn't get the support I needed - but that's another story. Ergo I flubbed them badly because my heart wasn't in it, but got offered the place on the foundation year on the strength of the interview and personal statement. Also, I didn't get the right careers / further education advice at school - traditional girls public school, and girls don't go off to do mechanical engineering. Hey ho! I ended up with a 2:1 for my BEng, missed a first by a gnat's todger due to my fannying around on a management module and scraping a pass on the exam...

Mech Eng & Automotive Design here too. Went in with designs of being a race engineer, but found that dynamics and fluid mechanics weren't nearly as much my cup of tea as the stress analysis and materials tech side of things. The electrical modules we did were ok, I hated CAD and 3D CAD as I much preferred doing that the traditional way. Robotics and integrated manufacture weren't offered on the Mech Eng courses, nor were the more in-depth materials modules, which is why I stayed on to do the Masters. For my sins (AKA masters project), I ended up developing a full-chassis computer model for Reynard Cars to do stress analysis with - at that time, it was still very much a theoretical thing for them, so I proved it was possible, and with commercially available software to boot (ANSYS).

My PhD was in F1 crash testing, concentrating on materials selection for side impacts. I designed and developed a small-scale testing rig for one of the FIA crash test procedures that could be used on an Instron in a standard testing lab, and then proved it could provide valuable information to reduce the number of iterations needed during full scale testing. The full-scale testing needs to be done in specialist places like MIRA as opposed to being done in-house, so it's expensive and time consuming and not conducive to real experimentation. I should add, that having my favourite racing driver die in a preventable accident, driver safety is something that really matters to me.

I did end up in motorsport after all that, but as a photographer and journalist.

 

[Accy cyclist]

When was that, 1925?
Kidding aside, and with an NUS card discount (of course), we could get a vindaloo, pilau rice, naan bread and a pint of Kingfisher for £4 at one of the local emporiums. Happy days

I remember buying a pint of Strongbow and pie and peas in the Peel pub next to Blackburn Tech for 55 pence in 1977, when I was on City and Guilds day release.🍺🥧


Mind you, I was only on 23 quid a week at the time.

 

[Arrowfoot]

I am really amazed that all you have the details right down to amount and what you did including the cost of pint at the student bar. Kind of worried my memory does not extend that far.

All I recall was a state grant for tuition fee for the 3 years. Dad had retired by then and my working sister picked up the tab for university hostel plus living expenses. Bless her soul as she did not have the opportunity to go to Uni.

As I recall we did not spend much and all entertainment was pretty much within the Uni, faculty or hostel. We did however have one memorable bad experience. There was 11 in the group, all males that would head to the nearby pubs for couple of pints and Alex would pick up the tab and do the collection thereafter each and everytime. Sometime it included snacks. Alex apparently could only count to 10.

 

[stephec]

Uni jobs, oh yes! Spent one easter vacation chucking huge bits of frozen meat into a massive meat grinder all day long. Couldn't wait to get back for the summer term ...

That's character building, and it should focus your mind on doing well at uni.

Having said that I'm visiting a factory that does exactly the same thing this morning.