Students 'choose beer over books'

The beer pump is a familiar sight for undergraduates

Students are spending up to £135m of their annual book budgets on beer and fast food, a survey suggests.

The online retailer Amazon.co.uk found undergraduates at UK universities planned to put aside a total of £311m to buy reading materials.

Only 57% of this money went to bookshops, the other 43% ending up in the hands of publicans, curry-house owners and kebab salesmen, among others.

But a spokesman for the National Union of Students said: "Students are not blowing all their money on boozing. Many, on the contrary, are missing meals as they struggle for money.

Stinging London

"This seems like an opportunistic marketing ploy. It trivialises student debt to sell books. It is especially tasteless, considering students are in greater debt than ever before."

The survey, of 2,000 students, found 91% thought the government should subsidise reading-list expenses, while 45% found the current costs "outrageous".

In expensive London, only 3% of undergraduates used all their planned book money on required reading materials, compared with 29% in Scotland and 22% in north-west England.

Medics were found to be the most virtuous students, spending almost double their intended budgets on reading lists.

Sports undergraduates were the least virtuous, blowing 65% of the money put aside for books on drinking and going out.