Parents are spending an average of £4,000 a year per child to help to keep their offspring at university.

The money is spent on top-up fees, accommodation, living expenses and to help to keep down debts, a study suggests.

With the cost of further education rising to about £39,000 over three years because of the introduction of top-up fees, the pressure on families to fund their children has grown.

But poorer students are less likely than better-off students to rely on family or student loans for support. Instead they are prone to racking up large debts on credit cards.
The 2007 Student Experience Report, which questioned 1,600 students at 20 universities, says that three quarters of them owe money. Last year the average student debt rose by 9 per cent to £5,760.

For students such as Kitty Johnston and Jide Sosimi, getting a degree seems almost to demand an A level in accounting. Ms Johnston, 20, is in her first year studying theatre dance at the London Studio Centre. By working part-time for the student accommodation organisation Unite, which commmissioned the survey, and with her parents paying about £3,000 a year for her rent — as do 60 per cent of students’ parents — she lives easily on £89 a week from her loan.

She pays back a third of her parents’ contribution through her wages. “Obviously we live like students, but the Starbucks coffees have gone out the window,” she said.

But for worse-off students, such as Mr Sosimi, 24, who studies forensic science at John Moores University in Liverpool, there is little alternative but to seek employment alongside their full-time studies. Nearly half of students who work (44 per cent) say that they do so just to pay the rent.

After saving £3,000 working as a healthcare assistant, postman and graphic designer in London, Mr Sosimi still found that he was struggling when he arrived in Liverpool two years ago. “I’d thought of accommodation, but I didn’t think of what came with it — like eating. So I was really struggling for the first year,” he said. “I realised I had to get a job.”

Two out of five students work an average of 14 hours a week, although many work nearer 20. The National Union of Students is among those calling for more financial guidance for students. Veronica King, the union’s vice-president, welfare, said: “The reality is that top-up fees and increased living costs are putting a huge strain on students, some of whom desperately need guidance to be able to manage the cost of higher education.”

The survey comes as school leavers face having to apply for higher education courses by the end of today if they want places in September. If an application arrives after the deadline but before June 30, it may still be looked at, but universities and colleges are under no obligation to do so.