Student Costs

[radamfi]

Is it easy to get a part time job while a student these days? When I was at Bath from 1991 to 1994, during the last period of high unemployment, hardly any students worked, but that was probably because grants/loans were still reasonably generous (despite the pleas of poverty by fellow students at the time). Students (especially at Bath) were also more likely to come from wealthy backgrounds so could rely on parental contribution instead of part time jobs.

 

[Ivo]

Is it easy to get a part time job while a student these days? When I was at Bath from 1991 to 1994, during the last period of high unemployment, hardly any students worked, but that was probably because grants/loans were still reasonably generous (despite the pleas of poverty by fellow students at the time). Students (especially at Bath) were also more likely to come from wealthy backgrounds so could rely on parental contribution instead of part time jobs.

Some places yes, others no.

As I'm sure you can appreciate, Bath's nature is such that many establishments are of a higher order than the average which would make student employment less likely. Additionally, Bath still has a substantial number of students from wealthy backgrounds. I would hope that my time at Spa has by this time resulted in them acknowledging that not all students in this city are well-off...

Elsewhere, I have learned that my rent is estimated at £135 next year - £540 more p/a. I will be lucky to have a loan/grant icnrease of 20% of that.

In other words, poverty still beckons come the Autumn

 

[RJ]

Is it easy to get a part time job while a student these days? When I was at Bath from 1991 to 1994, during the last period of high unemployment, hardly any students worked, but that was probably because grants/loans were still reasonably generous (despite the pleas of poverty by fellow students at the time). Students (especially at Bath) were also more likely to come from wealthy backgrounds so could rely on parental contribution instead of part time jobs.

Where I am, jobs, particularly the types popular with students, seem to be lowly paid and oversubscribed. I did apply for one job locally but didn't get it. However, it would have meant taking a substantial pay cut and I had no idea how it would work during the holidays. Part time work on the railways is the way forward for students. The pay is comparatively excellent if nothing else and working conditions are good, as it's a unionised industry. I've seen the way staff are treated elsewhere and thought "that would never happen on the railways."

I travel to London for work, which is over 100 miles away from university. It is only feasible because I pay less than £10 to use EMT's express services at any time, which tend to be highly reliable. Decent wifi on the 222s and the HSTs allow good mobile reception so I can use my phone to provide access instead. Quite a pleasant experience, especially now that I've gone under the radar with respect to the ticket(s) I use . I know those guards/barrier staff haven't the foggiest if or why the fare I pay is valid but they don't question it. Which is just as well as I have no intention of explaining it to them. The fare itself requires around 8 or 9 bullet points to explain the principles behind why it's valid, which only people with specialist knowledge would understand anyway. I also half expect a member of staff to try and do me for commuting on Priv tickets but I've already found a workaround for that.

London is a hive of opportunity, if you know where to look and have the right frame of mind. Part of me wishes that I didn't have to work, but I don't get handouts and am not very keen on living on a shoestring budget, so I do all that yo-yoing up and down the MML. Besides, I enjoy the work I do very much.

 

[NY Yankee]

When I was a kid in the 1990's, I went to camp during the summer. Many of my counselors came from the UK. If you have the patience to deal with obnoxious kids, you can make money as a counselor.

 

[Ivo]

When I was a kid in the 1990's, I went to camp during the summer. Many of my counselors came from the UK. If you have the patience to deal with obnoxious kids, you can make money as a counselor.

Plenty of patience!

Too bad I'm not available for much of this summer :roll:

 

[Nym]

When I was a kid in the 1990's, I went to camp during the summer. Many of my counselors came from the UK. If you have the patience to deal with obnoxious kids, you can make money as a counselor.

You have to pay to do that now...

I'd rather do an internship between uni and starting work, but the're hard to come by and I'd be on more money as a van driver...

 

[WelshBluebird]

In terms of jobs, I have a part time one with the Student Union. But I only managed to get that because I was very quick in applying (applied just after my A levels, so well before I knew if I would end up there or not). The vast majority of people I know don't have a job, and managed to survive because of their parents (which is very annoying when they then seem confused about why I need to work to make ends meet - totally oblivious to the fact not everyones parents can afford to bankroll them).

 

[telstarbox]

Not both full time though? Even part time it can't be that easy to fit shifts around your lectures.

This isn't a dig at students/arts courses but some "full time" uni courses only have 6 or 8 hours of contact time a week (ie lectures/seminars to attend) as you're supposed to spend the other 30 or so hours doing background reading, preparation, essays etc. If there are jobs available they can be fitted in, although it's easier on courses like English Lit than Medicine, which requires students to be in all day every day!

 

[WelshBluebird]

This isn't a dig at students/arts courses but some "full time" uni courses only have 6 or 8 hours of contact time a week (ie lectures/seminars to attend) as you're supposed to spend the other 30 or so hours doing background reading, preparation, essays etc. If there are jobs available they can be fitted in, although it's easier on courses like English Lit than Medicine, which requires students to be in all day every day!

But even then, quite often the timetabling makes it impossible to fit work around lecturers, even if you only have a few hours in a week of lectures.

Eg: If you have a lecture at 11am, and then one again at 3pm, even though that is only 2 hours of lectures, getting a job that fits around that is very difficult. Especially if you are at a uni that isn't in the city centre (a round trip from Bath uni to Bath city centre takes around an hour once you take into account waiting for buses etc).

I'm just lucky I managed to get work with the SU, as it means you can fit it around lectures like you are suggesting.

 

[cuccir]

Elsewhere, I have learned that my rent is estimated at £135 next year - £540 more p/a. I will be lucky to have a loan/grant icnrease of 20% of that.
(

Well why are you choosing to live in uni halls? There are some, if not many, rooms available at under £400 a month in Bath. Surely the advantages of being on site are lost in the extra cost?

 

[Greenback]

This isn't a dig at students/arts courses but some "full time" uni courses only have 6 or 8 hours of contact time a week (ie lectures/seminars to attend) as you're supposed to spend the other 30 or so hours doing background reading, preparation, essays etc. If there are jobs available they can be fitted in, although it's easier on courses like English Lit than Medicine, which requires students to be in all day every day!

You are correct about timetabled hours. When I was a student the Law course had 8 hours of lectures and seminars per week. I assume that some other courses would have had a similar amount. However, teacher training courses had a lot more than that, plus placements to consider!

But even then, quite often the timetabling makes it impossible to fit work around lecturers, even if you only have a few hours in a week of lectures.

Eg: If you have a lecture at 11am, and then one again at 3pm, even though that is only 2 hours of lectures, getting a job that fits around that is very difficult. Especially if you are at a uni that isn't in the city centre (a round trip from Bath uni to Bath city centre takes around an hour once you take into account waiting for buses etc).

I'm just lucky I managed to get work with the SU, as it means you can fit it around lectures like you are suggesting.

That is also true. I think it shows that we can't generalise, as much of a persons availability will depend on their timetable. However, I would be very surprised if it was not possible to fit in some sor tof paid work during a term. It may require a compromise in that someone may not want to work on a Saturday, but that is the real world!

Well why are you choosing to live in uni halls? There are some, if not many, rooms available at under £400 a month in Bath. Surely the advantages of being on site are lost in the extra cost?

All of the factors should be carefully considered when choosing whether to live in halls or not. There are advantageous and disadvantages to each, which can vary due to personal circumstances too.

For myself, I much preferred living on campus, where the comfort of my own room was never far away. I did not like hanging around the SU and bar like those who lived out, although I had to do it one year as it was Uni policy that everyone should live out at some stage.

Having chosen the more expensive option, especially as I wanted en suite, I found I had to work to make ends meet!

 

[RJ]

This isn't a dig at students/arts courses but some "full time" uni courses only have 6 or 8 hours of contact time a week (ie lectures/seminars to attend) as you're supposed to spend the other 30 or so hours doing background reading, preparation, essays etc. If there are jobs available they can be fitted in, although it's easier on courses like English Lit than Medicine, which requires students to be in all day every day!

For me, uni is a mile away from town and two miles from the station, plus I have 18 hours of lectures/tutorials per week.

 

[mbonwick]

Looks like I picked the wrong course(!)...on a good week, I'll have 24 hours of contact time, on a bad one it's over 30.

The price you pay for being an engineer I guess!

 

[Nym]

Hmmm, suppose that now I'm doing project driven work it should be lower, but I'm currently on 9hrs/week contact time.

Have previously been up in the 30s though in my 1st year.

 

[NY Yankee]

But even then, quite often the timetabling makes it impossible to fit work around lecturers, even if you only have a few hours in a week of lectures.

Eg: If you have a lecture at 11am, and then one again at 3pm, even though that is only 2 hours of lectures, getting a job that fits around that is very difficult. Especially if you are at a uni that isn't in the city centre (a round trip from Bath uni to Bath city centre takes around an hour once you take into account waiting for buses etc).

I'm just lucky I managed to get work with the SU, as it means you can fit it around lectures like you are suggesting.

Maybe you can work on weekends or get a job tutoring the younger students.

 

[LE Greys]

Looks like I picked the wrong course(!)...on a good week, I'll have 24 hours of contact time, on a bad one it's over 30.

The price you pay for being an engineer I guess!

Try being a marine ecologist. In Michaelmas Term, we had 9-5 lectures four days a week, 9-12 plus an afternoon seminar on Wednesdays, along with an expected 2-3 hours per evening research or working on assignments. Our course co-ordinator told us to expect a 70-hour week, but we could hardly complain, as she worked just as hard (and let us know it!) on research and peer-reviews.

 

[Ivo]

Well why are you choosing to live in uni halls? There are some, if not many, rooms available at under £400 a month in Bath. Surely the advantages of being on site are lost in the extra cost?

Short answer: I didn't. The Uni did.

 

[Clip]

You could always become a male escort at the weekends. I hear they make lots of money. Cant talk about trains though.

 

[Greenback]

You could always become a male escort at the weekends. I hear they make lots of money. Cant talk about trains though.

Ah, now I understand why I didn't make any money when I tried it

 

[jon0844]

Cant talk about trains though.

You'd have to go like one though.

 

[SS4]

Cant talk about trains though.

If you build up a head of steam you could go all night .

Be fair to Ivo and don't let this disintegrate into sexual innuendo

 

[142094]

Blocked modules is what you want - 9-5 one week then the next week off.

 

[radamfi]

Is there no demand nowadays for 'no frills halls'? It seems odd (to me as an old fart) for university accommodation to be more expensive than private rents. Surely it would be better to keep rents down (given that students are so hard up nowadays), rather than make them fancy like they have appeared to have done at Bath?

 

[LE Greys]

Is there no demand nowadays for 'no frills halls'? It seems odd (to me as an old fart) for university accommodation to be more expensive than private rents. Surely it would be better to keep rents down (given that students are so hard up nowadays), rather than make them fancy like they have appeared to have done at Bath?

True, although if any of them had catering like mine did in first year, then that certainly needs work. Apart from how rubbish the food was, we only got one meal on Sundays. Thankfully, the Chaplaincy used to feed us, so I suddenly started going to church again!

 

[lemonic]

True, although if any of them had catering like mine did in first year, then that certainly needs work. Apart from how rubbish the food was, we only got one meal on Sundays. Thankfully, the Chaplaincy used to feed us, so I suddenly started going to church again!

At all the catered halls at the University of Bristol, there is only one meal on Saturdays (Brunch 11:00-13:00) and on Sundays there is Continental Breakfast (9:30-10:00) and Roast dinner (12:30-13:30) i.e. there is no evening meal at the weekends although we do have dinner at lunchtime on Sunday. To make it worse at my hall the only cooking facilities for students are a microwave and toaster!

And in response to radamfi's post, most first year students will live in halls so universities have a captive market and can effectively charge what they want leading to potentially very high accommodation prices! I am sure that making accommodation nicer and charging more for it makes them more money than having worse accommodation and receiving less money.

 

[radamfi]

The majority of housing at Bath in my day (20 years ago) had walls looking like prison cells and had long obsolete BS 546 sockets. That meant that people bringing their radio/CD players had to replace their plugs. The electricity supply in the rooms was so limited that it was not permitted to boil kettles in the rooms, only in the kitchens. Many students ignored this meaning many blown fuses.

My accommodation at Bath was relatively luxurious, as it was newly built and so I 'enjoyed' having modern 3 pin plug sockets in my room!

The talk in this thread about catering is also an eye-opener for me. When I was at Bath, there was no catering unless you went to the refectory where you paid for each meal. As a result, most people cooked.

 

[IanXC]

You are correct about timetabled hours. When I was a student the Law course had 8 hours of lectures and seminars per week. I assume that some other courses would have had a similar amount. However, teacher training courses had a lot more than that, plus placements to consider!

That is also true. I think it shows that we can't generalise, as much of a persons availability will depend on their timetable. However, I would be very surprised if it was not possible to fit in some sor tof paid work during a term. It may require a compromise in that someone may not want to work on a Saturday, but that is the real world!

I had about 20 hours per week, the department administrator always arranged the timetables so each year had a day off. Not quite sure what here logic was but that meant that I could, when required, work a weekday and/or a Saturday.

You'd be surprised how useful that kind of thing can be to a business. I have 2 colleagues at work who are students, they both work Saturdays, but also a day during the week, maybe with odd hours, like 10-6 or 11-7. We fit that around their timetable, then we fit things like courses and lieu days for the other staff around the days that they're in. Works a treat.

 

[devon_metro]

Is there no demand nowadays for 'no frills halls'? It seems odd (to me as an old fart) for university accommodation to be more expensive than private rents. Surely it would be better to keep rents down (given that students are so hard up nowadays), rather than make them fancy like they have appeared to have done at Bath?

I paid £73pw in Southampton for reasonably basic (but not shabby) uni accomodation, clearly Bath is slightly more lavish than Southampton... I found Southampton to be reasonable for cost compared to other unis, only Cardiff and Manchester were comparable on cost and I didn't like either of the two since the accomodation was pretty awful!