Here's some good advice from The Push Guides who provide advice on higher education and student issues. You can find them on www.push.co.uk

What's it all about?

Given that volunteering to be a student is equivalent to volunteering to be poor for at least three years while mates from school are out there earning a wage, is it worth it?

Some might say poverty is what student life is all about - getting by cheaply, putting up with squalor and somehow learning to make the most of it. There's some truth to that.

Learning how to live on less money than you'd like is something most people have to do sometime although getting by as a student is a pretty extreme way of learning it.

Nevertheless, along with the sex, the drugs and the rock'n'roll, it's part of the wider education that you get along with a university degree (fortunately at no extra cost).

But the sad fact is that many students end up quitting their courses for no other reason than simply not being able to manage on their limited means.

In fact, nearly 16% of students flunk university. That's one in six. Most people think it won't be them. One in six are wrong.

Of course, not all of them flunk because of money. Far from it.

But for almost all of them, poverty is another nail in the coffin and many of them wouldn't give up if it weren't costing them so much money.

Yet there are effective ways of minimising debts while maximising your enjoyment of the whole university experience.

It is just a matter of striking the right balance through careful budgeting and cost-cutting (which doesn't have to be as boring or as puritanical as it sounds).

And in the long term, there is a huge gain to be had. Apart from anything else, what else would you do with the money anyway?

You get intellectual stimulation, access to cheap but kicking night clubs, inexpensive bars, some of the country's best leisure and sporting facilities, memories you'll never forget and, finally, letters after your name if you last the distance.

Being a student for three or four years is worth tens of thousands of anyone's money if only to put off for another few years the rat race, the mortgage, the 2.4 kids and the slow march to retirement and death.

Not convinced? Send for the Push Guide to Money : Student Survival from The Push Guides, Southbank House, Black Prince Road, London SE1 7SJ.

Tel : 0207463 0655/Fax : 020 7463 0651.