Nextgen Global Educational Consultancy

Student Accommodation

There are many options for places to live when you come to the UK, and each of these will vary in cost. If you are planning to come to the UK for University then you will most probably take the Halls of Residence option and these normally start from about £50 per week, moving up to around £80 per week for some larger universities. Some will have catering facilities such as a canteen, but others will just have a kitchen so you can cook your own food. If you opt to not go the halls of residence option, you can always go and find your own accommodation and the best way to do this is get a group of 6 students that you would like to live with. You can then go house hunting and find your own accommodation. The benefit of doing this is that firstly it’s fun to look for a house together and secondly with 6 people costs are split 6 ways and so it can be a much cheaper option. Rents can range from anything from £35/ week upwards depending on the standard of accommodation. If you are travel to the UK for ESL lessons or for another reason you might want to opt for a homestay. These are often shorter term visits and for that reason it is not common to travel to the UK for a degree program and to stay at a homestay for the entire time of your degree. Homestays generally start from about £100/ week in London and much less if you go outside of London. Although this looks more expensive you have to consider that this price will be inclusive of meals and all accommodation.

Sample University Living Costs

UK universities generally provide guidance as to how much an international student should expect to spend on living expenses (not including university tuition and college fees). Of course, making a budget and controlling your costs is largely up to you, but here is a short representative list to give you a general idea of living expenses: University of Liverpool - £5,500 to £7,000 per year Essex University - £5,700 to £7,500 per year University of Manchester - £8,100 per year Oxford University – £9,750 per year University of London – approximately £210 per week

Sample for Post Graduate students

As a post-graduate student, the course length will generally be shorter, and class sizes will be much smaller. For this reason, fees will be higher ranging up to £10,000 for a course. If you are taking an MBA program, competition may firstly be fierce, and the cost could be in the region of £10,000 to £16,000 or more per year.

Living Expenses

Working out what living expenses you will need to consider and how much they will cost you will depend on so many factors. For example if you want to live the lifestyle you have been doing with your parents back in your home country - this will probably be very expensive to do, so you might have to make compromises! As a rough guide we have calculated what it could cost you for the major items you will need when you are in the UK: Food If you buy your own food, try and budget in about £25 to £30 per week to purchase food supplies. You can of course be smart and savvy about this and save much more. Telephone (landline) BT has a base rate of £10/ month for just line rental so calls are charged on top of this so that would be £2.50 per week. Telephone (mobile) The cost of mobiles varies depending on the provider and tariff you are on. Prepaid is generally cheaper to control costs, but if you make a lot of calls a contract will start at £5/ week. DSL / Internet Most companies charge a base of £5/ week for standard DSL in the UK. Bills If you live in a house or apartment you will need to calculate water, heating and electricity into your budget - this can be anything from £10/week for all bills depending on the time of year. Travel If you live away from University you will need to include travel expenses in your budget. This can be anything from £10/ week, more if you live in London. Study Materials Books, notepads, paper, printer cartridges are all things you will need and you should budget about £7/ week for this. Fun It’s not all study when you come to the UK, there will be time for some fun so you need to think about the cost of this. A cinema ticket in the UK costs around £8, a pint of beer £3, a DVD rental around £3. These are all costs you will need to budget so set aside what you’ll need for fun!

Lower your living cost

There are also some things you can do to lower your living expenses and here are few tips: Tip 1 - Student NUS Card When you enroll as a student in the UK you will get an NUS card which is a student ID card from the National Union of Students. With this card you will be able to get discounts at many national stores - so always make sure you ask if you can get a discount! Tip 2 - Choose where you shop If you are living in your own flat, house or halls of residence with no catering you will need to buy your own food. It is common knowledge that supermarkets such as Sainsburys, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose are more expensive than Tesco and Asda. Save money and shop at Asda or Tesco. Tip 3 - Student NUS Card Your international calling costs will probably be high as you will want to call home often. If you have DSL you can take advantage of Skype to call around the world for little or nothing. But to also take advantage of cheap calls from your mobile or landline phone, check out the “Call UK” section for low cost calling from the UK.