UNIVERSITY students are being issued with obesity warnings in the wake of research showing the average fresher puts on a stone in their first year.

A leaflet produced by the student association at the University of Dundee advises undergraduates to steer clear of junk food and to drink sensibly.

It says undergraduates who gorge on fatty food and alcohol are far less likely to get good grades.

“First-year students can gain as much as 15lbs in their first year at university because of the changes in food and diet patterns,” the health warning states. “Student intake of fat, sugar and carbohydrates often exceeds the daily recommended levels.

“Students with a well-balanced, healthy diet will find their academic performance is consistent with the state of their physical health. Eating habits during the university years create eating habits that impact on future health.”

The move follows an American study showing that the average student puts on 15lbs — dubbed the Fresher’s 15 — within 12 months.

Professor Annie Anderson, a nutritionist from the university’s centre for public health and nutritional research, said there was mounting concern over the number of overweight and obese students in Scotland.

She said a combination of factors including stress, being away from home for the first time, peer pressure and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, was causing a growing number of students to balloon.

“The main issue here is booze,” she said. “Not all students drink to excess but when young people leave home there is a lot more freedom and a couple of pints every night really does add up as alcohol is quite high in calories.”

Anderson said that the rapid increase in car ownership among students had also taken its toll. “People assume being at university involves a lot of physical activity because there are so many sports associations but many students have cars, which was pretty much unheard of in the past,” she said.

However, Anderson added that the stereotype of the hard-drinking student who spends more time in the pub than at lectures was far from the truth. “A lot of students have part-time jobs so they are working hard and studying hard. Thinking about nutrition and health is way down their list of priorities. The pressures on students nowadays are enormous.”

She said youngsters who are used to having their meals cooked for them at home often struggle to cater for themselves. “There is a tendency to eat lots more junk food as it is convenient and inexpensive,” she said.

The Dundee Students’ Association is urging freshers to buy vouchers that can be exchanged for fresh healthy food, but not alcohol or sweets.

Meanwhile, English universities are turning to the tricks of the high street to lure A-level candidates by offering cash incentives of up to £10,000.

With tuition fees almost trebling to £3,000 a year from this autumn, universities are exploiting the new market to attract bright students and improve their league-table position.

Coventry University is giving £2,000 a year to any entrant with A-level grades of ABB or above, while De Montfort in Leicester has an unlimited number of scholarships worth £1,000 each for students with grades of BBC.

They have been trumped by some higher ranked institutions with Manchester University awarding 10 scholarships of £10,000 each to students who achieved straight As, not only in their A-levels but also in each of their exam modules.

Others have spurned cash incentives for straight giveaways, with the College of St Mark and St John in Plymouth providing free laptops for all new students.

The move is partly a response to fears that the rise in fees will deter many potential applicants worried about amassing tens of thousands of pounds of debt. Applications are down overall by 17,000 this year.

Almost all the universities have chosen to charge the full £3,000, up from £1,175 last year, and automatically pay means-tested bursaries to those with parents on low incomes.

The market has emerged for those with better grades, although critics warn that offering too many cash incentives risks creating a “Ryanair” situation in which students on the same course pay varying fees.

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