Graduate debt continues to rise, although at a much slower pace to previous years, a survey of graduates, current students and sixth formers has revealed. Graduates now leave university with £13,252 of debt, an increase of £612 (5%) on 2005.

However, the percentage of graduates leaving university with debts of over £10,000 remained the same as in 2005 at 62%.

The 2006 NatWest Student Money Matters survey showed students are now increasingly relying on part time jobs to finance their life at university.

A massive 87% of this year’s intake believe that they will have to get a part time job and 46% of current students have to rely on their income from term time work to get by, working an average of 14 hours a week. Current students supplement their income by an average of £71.32 per week.

Parents footing the bill

Despite debt increasing and part time work becoming a necessity, the good news is that two thirds of parents finance their children’s university education. 28% give regular amounts throughout the term, 26% get money from their parents as and when they need it, 8% get a lump sum at the beginning of each term and 4% got a one off amount when they started university.

Clued up

Mark Worthington, head of NatWest student and graduate banking, said: "New students are clearly much more clued up about the financial realities of university than in previous years."

"Despite the anticipated cost of university rising by 17% on 2005, students are taking it in their stride and cutting back on their spending, meaning they only expect to graduate with 8% more debt than those not paying the increased tuition fees."

Expectations

Sixth formers starting university this year expect to pay £33,512 for a three-year degree course. This is up from £28,600 last year and includes the new tuition fees. As a result, they expect to graduate with £14,779 of debt, an increase of £1,099 on 2005 figures.

Despite these figures however, 79% of 2006’s intake believe that going to university will help them with their future job prospects and 53% wanted to use the opportunity to train for a specific career such as medicine or law

Outcome

Despite lower average starting salaries this year, 56% of graduates admit that they have landed a good job, 41% are now totally independent from their parents and 43% claim to have a healthier bank balance (up from 28% in 2005).