Never mind the emotional investment: for many part-time students, living together comes at a cost. Mira Katbamna reports
Mira Katbamna
Tuesday 16 October 2007 23.35 BST
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Funding applications are not usually the stuff of romance. But for an increasing number of part-time undergraduates, applying for funding is becoming a matter of the heart. In fact, if you are planning to do an undergraduate degree, you'd be wise to avoid falling in love with a handsome stranger.
Guidelines from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Dius) require students to declare their "household" income when they apply for grants for course fees. The Open University awards full or partial grants: couples with no dependants are eligible for a full grant if their income is less than £17,700 or a partial grant if it is less than £28,180.
If you are single, married or in a long-term or civil partnership, the guidelines make sense. But for a growing number of mature students at the younger end of the age scale, living together may be a transitory state: one step towards marriage or a firmer commitment - or one step towards drifting apart.
As a result, while the bills and rent may be split 50-50, partners are unlikely to share each other's income or even know how much the other person earns.
Marit Tingstad Husby, 26, from London, is doing a part-time OU social sciences degree and is two years away from graduation. As a childminder and musician, she received funding towards her course fees - until she moved in with her boyfriend, Simon Loveland, 31. Living with Loveland, who works full-time in PR, nudges Husby's "household income" over the £28,180 limit.
"We split our bills and rent 50-50, but we don't share our income," she says. "If you have made a long-term commitment or are married, then it makes sense, but as we are, I don't think it's fair that Simon has to pay for my education."
Loveland says: "Although I'm the higher earner, I don't earn enough to support two people. Often people move in together because it's cheaper, especially in London, when you're renting, like we are. So you don't necessarily think you're going to take on additional financial responsibility. It was OK with us, but I can imagine it might be difficult ...
"It doesn't reflect modern life. People don't decide to live together once they have made the commitment - they live together as part of discovering if they want to make the commitment."
Husby thinks the problem could become more complex as people grow older. "In reality, people who are living together, especially at our age, might split up and then live with someone else," she says. "So the financial responsibility just isn't there in the way it would be with a married couple or a couple with children."
They are not alone. Laura Clements, 32, from Manchester, is taking an OU course in English literature. A part-time lecturer in advertising at Salford University, she also teaches yoga and pilates; until now she has received funding for her degree. But last month Clements moved in with her lawyer boyfriend.
"He's a moneybags!" she jokes. "And of course we are very generous and considerate to each other. But I don't share his income, and neither would I want to unless we had children.
"If we had been together for years and years, or if we were pooling everything, it might make sense - but as it is, we haven't been together very long, we don't have children and we are financially independent. It's not his responsibility to pay for me."
Clements has decided to pay her own fees, even though it will put pressure on her finances. However, she points out that the guidelines could force couples to make decisions about their future before they are ready.
"You don't want any more financial pressure when you are just finding out if you are meant to be together or not," she says. "I wouldn't feel comfortable asking [him] because then I would feel dependent. As it is, I will pay for the fees, and it will by my loss for living with someone who earns more, not the household's [loss]."
For some students, it is not just a case of having a "tricky" conversation. "We've just moved in together, and although I've got a vague idea, I don't know exactly how much my girlfriend earns," says one student. "Although we share the rent, we're not at the stage where I could ask her to support me, and I can't continue with my degree without the money. So I either have to lie on my form, give up my degree or split up with my girlfriend."
Will Swan, director for students at the OU, says the issue affects part-time students at all universities and that all higher education institutions have to operate under Dius guidance.
"We confirm all our procedures with them, our application form is closely mirrored on the Dius application form and it is important that we are consistent with other providers," he says. "And we have coped with social change to a degree: we take account of civil partnerships and partnerships which don't have legal standing, so we have caught up with changes in personal relationships to a degree that it is practicable."
Creating a third category to sit between "single" and "committed long-term partnership" would be near impossible, Swan adds. "Dius doesn't require us to run an inquiries department to make close investigation of people's personal lives. What we say is that your household consists of you and - if you have one - the husband, wife, civil partner or partner (opposite or same sex) who lives with you. Determining whether someone is a partner in this context comes down to whether they share an income and the extent to which they share an income - and establishing that would be extremely complex."
But is it really that complex? The students I spoke to all agreed that there might be a simple solution: asking funding applicants whether they "shared an income" rather than a home. Although it is too late for this year, it's a change that would allow part-time students to fill in their application forms without the heartache.