Cash-clever students should be toasting Dundee

Students living in the "City of Discovery" are able to help meet their living costs with income from part-time jobs, leaving them with the smallest deficit at the end of the week.

At the end of the academic year they could be as much as 540 better off - enough to buy 14,000 slices of toast, the cornerstone of the student diet - compared to their counterparts in St Andrews

Glasgow - top Scottish city in last year's survey - was relegated to second place, while Aberdeen slumped to third. The "granite city" had both the highest rents and living costs in Scotland, but students were able to offset the high prices with part-time jobs. Edinburgh and Glasgow were the cheapest cities in terms of rent, with the average being 73 per week.

The research, conducted for The Royal Bank of Scotland as part of its Student Living Index 2005, revealed students in Dundee spend an average of 179 per week on housing and living costs - but recoup 83 from part-time work.

Undergraduates in St Andrews earn an average of 63 from their term-time jobs but pay 190 to live in the medieval golfing town.

While St Andrews had the biggest difference between average earning and costs, the actual weekly cost of living in the town was the lowest in the UK, at 116, with a lack of part-time jobs there making the difference.

The most popular term-time work for students were the traditional short-term earners, such as bar and shop work. The authors of the survey say that students in Scotland were shedding their work-shy image, with 43 per cent in term-time work, slightly above the UK average.

Students with part-time jobs worked an average of 15 hours per week but nearly a quarter worked over 20 hours.

According to the research, Scottish students will spend 900 million on housing and living expenses over the coming academic year. About 348 million will go on rent, 100 million on supermarket shopping and another 50 million on going out and drinking. Scottish students will also spend a total of 30 million on text books and other course materials, with 20 million going on luxuries such as CDs.

Ben Reilly, director of representation at the Students' Union in St Andrews, said: "St Andrews is a very community-orientated university and students tend to make their own entertainment.

"This has the knock-on effect of lowering the cost of living, with students using things like student societies to have fun." He added: "Going to university is a very expensive investment. That makes it more important for students to be able to choose how and when they receive their loans."

Anne McGillivray, head of student banking at The Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "Today's students face a range of financial hurdles.

"According to our research, one quarter underestimate the amount they need to spend on rent and living costs. The key to managing your finances effectively is forward-planning and setting and sticking to a realistic budget."

The survey questioned 552 students in five of Scotland's university towns.

Nationally, Dundee was the only Scottish city to make it into the UK top ten for cost-effective living, finishing in ninth place. London was the highest-scoring student destination, and St Andrews was the least cost-effective of the 24 British cities included in the survey.