Degrees to cost students £50,000 each

From 2012, an average student will pay £48,503 in total for studying for three years, according to a report by HomesforStudents.co.uk.

The figure is a 55 per cent increase from the £31,373 paid on average by a current undergraduate over his university career.

In total, tuition fees, accommodation and living expenses will collectively cost England’s undergraduates £46.2bn.

The figures are based on an analysis of tuition fees, at the new £9,000 maximum, and accommodation at the UK’s elite Russell Group of universities.

Russell Group universities based in London are the most expensive, the study suggests, with students at the London School of Economics (LSE) paying the most.

The average cost of a three-year degree at LSE is £52,319, the survey says.

The cheapest is Manchester University, where a student will need to find £46,537 over three years.

Students can save money by renting privately in nearly all of England’s major university towns and cities, the survey found. Only in Oxford and Cambridge is it cheaper to stay in university halls, it added.

HomesforStudents.co.uk director Jonathan Moore said: “Undergraduates are already under extreme financial pressure - and this is only going to get worse as the higher fees kick in next year.

“Rents in the private sector have been rocketing up - but they are still some distance from matching the cost of a room in most university halls, which cover cleaners, wardens and layers of university administration.”