CHRISTMAS and New Year is a busy time for Georgina Watts. Manager of the University of Central England's student union advice centre, she says that the number of hardship cases peaks after Christmas: "Money runs out and the greater study load towards the end of semester means students cannot work as many hours."
A recent survey at the Birmingham-based university found that 35 per cent of 4,900 student respondents felt their poor finances had a negative impact on their academic performance. Just under half were overdrawn, with 24 per cent "very overdrawn".
Carmel Smith, 42, is one student who will not be having a very merry Christmas. Since starting a sociology degree this autumn, she has gone from receiving weekly income support to an annual grant of just Pounds 5,550. She has taken out student loans totalling Pounds 2,000. On this she has to support herself and her two teenage children.
Christmas for the family has been practically cancelled for the next three years and they have set a Pounds 10 limit on presents. "I'm on a permanent guilt trip . . . I feel as if I'm depriving them, but it's that or we're going to be miserable in the new year because we'll have debt," Ms Smith says. The decline in income has been worsened by the loss of benefits such as free school meals. She feels penalised for returning to education and gaining formal qualifications.
David Sheehan, 21, an estate management student, says this Christmas will be the worst of his three years at university: "I've got no money at all."
He says it is horrible not being able to afford gifts for family and friends. "I don't like going home without any presents . . . I've got to shop hard to get a bargain."
Mr Sheehan expects to have a student loan debt of Pounds 4,000 by the end of his course. His parents have made up his grant to the full Pounds 1,710 per annum, and he relies on them for other forms of support.
"If my parents were not coming from Bristol to pick me up it would be difficult to find enough money to buy a ticket home," he says.
To save money he spends as little as possible on food - "I've got it down to about Pounds 8 a week" - and says, like other students, he often goes without breakfast and even lunch to economise.
Catherine Parks, 21, is retaking her second year of accounting, and so does not receive a student grant. She works two nights a week in a pub and a betting shop on Saturday. Her parents do not give any financial support and she has already spent her Pounds 1,600 student loan.
She will be spending Christmas with her parents in Chichester: "I've got a large family and I'm expected to buy presents for them all, especially the nieces and nephews."
She says combining study and work is difficult: "You end up working when you should be in college. You miss lectures in order to earn money to be here".