Student borrowing 'has doubled'

Average student debt has doubled since Labour came to power, figures showed today.

And the average price of a pint in the student union bar has also jumped 58 per cent since 1997, to £1.89, according to a money guide to campus life.

Variations in living costs - particularly rent - meant some people graduated with debts in the low thousands, while others ended up owing £15,000 or more.

Average debts were building up at a rate of £3,523 per year, said The Push Guide to Money 2005-6: Student Survival. Graduates were finishing three- to five-year courses owing an average of £11,830, up from £5,792 when Labour were voted in.

With the introduction of top-up fees two years away, debts were set to rise even more, the guide warned.

One in 10 students graduated owing £15,000 or more, while three per cent had debts of £20,000-plus.

Debts ranged from £128 a year at Birkbeck, a college for part-time students in the University of London, and £528 a year at the full-time University of Ulster - to £7,471 at Bath University.

Rent varied from £35 a week in Bradford and Hull to £118 at the School of Pharmacy in London, according to Push.

Drop-out rates rose from one per cent at Cambridge to 32 per cent at the Bolton Institute.

The price of a pint of beer on campus varied from £1 at Leeds and Liverpool to £2.76 at University of London's Heythrop College.