paying for university in the UK (and other places, maybe)

do i have it right that essentially tuition is “free” - it is paid by a student loan company directly to the university, and then is paid back via a mechanism that essentially feels like a tax - 9% of any salary over £25k? so there is zero upfront cost?

and then there is a “maintenance loan” to supposedly help with living expenses but which covers fuck all really?

i’m trying to figure out how much to budget for my two hulking man-children. i probably should have thought of this earlier.

that's about the size of it. unsurprisingly it's the rent that's the major cost, so if can figure out a hack for that you're winning. our eldest is just getting to the end of his first year, luckily he got the full allowance and a bursary from the university as we're a single income family and i earn very little. I do earn slightly more now than we did when he applied though so I expect that to change, but he spent his gap year and holidays working in a pub so he's going to use that experience to get a bar job during term time. His brother will start in 2025, so we're properly going to be up against it then