According to Accommodationforstudents.com, the average weekly rent in the UK is now £60.58, which is 4% higher than last year’s figure of £58.19.

However, weekly rented student accommodation in London costs on average £102.33, which is 69% above the UK average. The rest of the south of the country is also above the average weekly rent by 20% or more, and this includes Cambridge (the second most expensive in the UK at £84.15 a week), Guildford (£81.54), Oxford (£79.11), Exeter (£75.74) and Brighton (£72.61).

In Scotland, St Andrews is the UK’s third most expensive city for accommodation at £82.56 per week, 36% above average, and Glasgow and Edinburgh’s students have average weekly rents of £69.76 and £68.96 respectively.

Accommodation in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle and Leeds are all below average for student rentals. Best value locations in terms of student rental accommodation are Middlesborough, Crewe, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Bradford and Sunderland, with average weekly rents of between £39 and £44.

Simon Thompson, co-founder and director of Accommodation for Students, said: “Now that students are accumulating large borrowings to subsidise their studies, the cost of accommodation has become a critical factor in their choice of university.

“Although southern universities are still more expensive for accommodation, with London way out in front, some other increasingly popular university locations have also seen a considerable rise in rents such as Durham, Warwick and Loughborough.”