The Cost

If money is going to be a factor in your choice, then there's one very basic rule to follow when working out how expensive going to a university will be. North = cheap. South = expensive.

This is particularly true of rent, the biggest cost to students: 10 out of 10 of the most costly institutions to live in are the self-catering halls in London. In some London institutions, you can pay around £90 a week for self-catering accommodation, compared to the cheaper options in parts of Scotland which can be as low as around £35 a week.

While the loans available are bigger if you live in London, they are not in other areas of the south east, such as Brighton or Luton, where the cost of living is comparable with parts of the capital.

And loans are also marginally smaller if you opt, as an increasing number of students do, to skip the rent by going to a university close to your parents' home. But if that's in London, tube fares to lectures, the library and to see your mates can cost £30 or so a week - money which may be better spent on rent if there's an equivalent course in the north.

When you're talking cost of living, it's as well to remember that beer costs vary too. An out-of-town campus may not give you easy access to the throbbing club life of a metropolis that other students would frequent, but it will certainly be cheaper, as students opt for the subsidised pints at the union bar.

The balance can be difficult to strike. While the north/south variance tells you something about rent and the general cost of living, the travel, lifestyle and the loan/location equation need factoring in - as does the availability of part-time work in the area (and what it pays). There's only one answer - get researching.

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