Student finance: A-Level pupils heading for London universities face £65,000 of debt by the time they leave

University Students London

Rex Features

15 August 2012

Students starting university this autumn could face total costs of more than £53,000 by the time they have finished their course, a study has found.

The total typical three-year bill includes more than £26,000 in tuition fees, nearly £12,500 on accommodation and almost £4,000 on social activities such as drinking alcohol, insurer LV= said.

Strong regional variations were also found, with Scottish students studying in their home country facing a bill of just over £23,000 over three years, due to an absence of tuition fees and lower typical accommodation costs. However, the cost for non-Scottish students studying in Scotland was put at more than £47,500.

The cost of studying in Northern Ireland was put at around £48,000 while the typical spend on university essentials in Wales was calculated at almost £52,000.

People choosing to study in London could rack up a total bill of more than £65,500, due to the high cost of living in the English capital.

The study comes ahead of this year's A-level results published tomorrow.

Researchers looked at 40 universities across the UK and took any fees and living costs into account.

Here is the regional breakdown across the UK of the total cost of going to university estimated by LV=. All the figures are based on a three-year period, so that they are comparable, although degrees in Scotland tend to be offered as a four-year course:

:: London, £65,504

:: South East, £56,653

:: South West, £54,625

:: West Midlands, £53,969

:: North West, £53,812

:: East, £53,589

:: Yorkshire and Humberside, £52,672

:: East Midlands, £52,376

:: Wales, £51,764

:: North East, £50,324

:: Northern Ireland, £48,349

:: Scotland (non-Scottish students), £47,516

:: Scotland (Scottish students), £23,216

The study also calculated that over a four-year period, Scottish students will pay £31,060 in living costs and non-Scottish students will pay £55,360 to attend a Scottish university.

Here is the average spend calculated on university essentials over a three-year course:

:: Tuition fees, £26,310

:: Accommodation, £12,478

:: Food, £4,319

:: Leisure (including social activities, music and films, and alcohol consumption), £3,933

:: Gas, electricity and water, £1,233

:: Clothes, £1,189

:: Books, equipment, £1,032

:: Travel, £996

:: Laundry/toiletries, £724

:: Travel home, £454

:: Household goods,£405