Students expect to accrue tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt by the time they graduate, according to a survey published by Endsleigh Insurance this week.

The research, which polled almost 2,000 students in the UK on matters of student debt in the current economic climate, found that the average student expects to owe between £15,000 and £20,000.

Endsleigh Financial Advisor, James Crocker said: "The results of the survey point to the increasing financial strain that today’s student is under."

Over three-quarters of students polled predicted that they would graduate with debts close to this average. Only 15 percent of those surveyed thought that they would graduate with less than £5,000 in university debt.

The survey, carried out by Customer Care Research for Endsleigh, also included a poll on the amount of time students expect to be paying off their university debts. A majority of the students polled believed that it would take a full decade to pay off their accrued debts and almost a quarter thought that it would take twenty years.

Despite these concerns about university debts, less than one percent of students polled were living at home in order to lower debts upon graduation and only two-fifths were intend ing to work throughout the academic year for extra income.

However, according to a review by Universities UK, the risk of high debts on graduation is countered by the average increase in wages for graduates, with university graduates earning an estimated £160,000 more in a lifetime than a non-graduate with A-level qualifications.

Endsleigh’s survey follows a similar poll by the National Union of Students (NUS), published in March 2009. The NUS survey received similarly negative responses concerning the present situation of UK students, with 80 percent being either ‘concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ by their future prospects as university graduates.

NUS President, Wes Streeting, said: "The great distress being experienced by students and their families in the middle of this economic crisis puts the grossly insensitive demands of vice chancellors for even higher fees into perspective."

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has suggested that students should pay higher fees, receive fewer grants and pay increased student loan interest in order to address university finance issues. There has been mention of tuition fees climbing to as high as £5,000 to deal with the universities’ funding crisis.