Spent some time last Sept working out how much University would cost me in total to do a degree and also how much my friends would end up paying for their degrees (all 4/5 year degrees).
Costs ranged from around £30k for the 4 year courses and those living at home to around £80k for a couple doing 5 year courses living out-of-home, not including living costs, just rent and fees.
a fATPL can be obtained slightly towards the lower end of this range, which to me makes it seem not much different than what people going to uni are doing. Naturally the big downside is the fact that there is no 'student loan' for flight training.