Spotlight on: student leisure time

A massive £1,800 a year is spent by students on their spare time activities. According to MORI, over a third of the student budget gets spent on entertainment and NUSSL (the trading arm of the National Union of Students) say the student leisure market is worth £1.6 billion a year, with students spending an average of 18 hours on leisure activities a week. So what are they doing in all this spare time?

Half of students (46%) go clubbing every week, while watching bands is as popular as ever with 79% gigging once a month or more. Students are big filmgoers - 92% visit the cinema at least once a month. They are also big consumers of video, DVD and games. Alex Sparks, managing director of Blockbuster UK, explains why his company visited over 40 freshers' fairs this year: "Targeting students is a natural fit for Blockbuster. Students are not only a major section of the current movie and gaming market, they also represent the future consumers and influencers of in-home entertainment in the UK"

All students have free access to high-speed internet in their university libraries and, increasingly, in their accommodation. They make good use of it, checking email every day, using message boards and chat rooms, and visiting mostly entertainment-related sites for humour and gaming. In fact, a survey by NetValue found that a third of all those gaming online are students.

No longer are they relying on shared computers in university facilities. At a typical institution like University College Worcester, where the cost of living is average, a staggering 91% of students own their own computers, a third of them laptops.

Sport is obviously an integral part of the student experience, and students have access to a phenomenal range of choice. Wednesday afternoons are reserved for sports activities in universities across the UK and BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) claims 1.2 million students and 3,200 teams take part.

When it comes to favourite leisure venues, as a rule the students' union is number one for first year students, who often spend their early months getting familiar with their immediate surroundings. But beyond the first year students start venturing off campus, spending equal amounts of time in pubs, clubs and cinemas (and many of them are regulars at pool clubs, karting tracks and bowling alleys).

It should not be forgotten that, to pay for all this activity, many students have to take part-time jobs. Some 43% work up to 29 hours a week.