Students 'spend £7,000 per year'

NI students spend an average of £7,000 per year

Students in Northern Ireland put £790m into the economy during term time, according to new research.

A study carried out for the Northern Bank shows that each year students spend £1,400 on rent and utility bills and £1,000 on food.

The bank's Rosamond Bennett said that the research contradicted some stereotypes about students.

"These days you're more likely to find your average student in a library than down the pub," she said.

Ms Bennett, the bank's head of communications and commercial development, said the attitude of many of the province's 70,000 full-time students was different since the introduction of tuition fees and the abolition of maintenance grants.

"Our focus groups suggest that students are very nervous about running up debt and don't need to be lectured about their finances," she said.

"As they tend to be funded by loans they are already very cautious about using credit cards and generally speaking very careful with money."

Other findings of the research were that students spend an average of £1,200 on tuition fees, £452 on travelling between their homes and college and £394 on clothes.