STUDENTS in Edinburgh spend the most going out even though the city is the most expensive to study in, new research has found.
The Royal Bank of Scotland's student living index placed the capital at the bottom of a league table of cities due to the cost of rent and low wages available to part-time work.
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However, students are still lavish spenders on evening entertainment and also shell out more than the UK average on alcohol.
In stark contrast Glasgow was found to be one of the cheapest student cities when it comes to accommodation, with average weekly rent up to £15 cheaper than the UK average at only £95.16 per week.
Weekly rent in Dundee is even less at £94.49, allowing students to spend above average on clothes, shoes and accessories.
The index surveyed 2,500 students across the UK to determine the most and least affordable places to study of 25 university cities.
The survey took into account a range of factors, including living and accommodation costs and average incomes for students.
It also looked at how much students spend on going out and how much time they spend studying.
It found that above-average weekly rent of about £112 and significantly lower than average term-time income of about £995 combined to make Scotland's capital the least affordable place to study.
Portsmouth topped the index as the most cost-effective city, followed by Liverpool and Newcastle, while Dundee
Student leaders called the figures "shocking", but added that they came as no surprise.
Rob Henthorn, NUS Scotland Vice President Education, said: "Thousands of students across Scotland face soaring costs of living, while struggling to juggle their studies and other responsibilities with working long hours to subsidise student loans or bursaries that aren’t fit for purpose.”
“As well as highlighting the exploitative wages too many students are forced to accept, this is just further evidence reinforcing the need for drastic reform to the support we offer students in Scotland – an issue that NUS Scotland has a proud history of campaigning on.
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"With a student support system that simply doesn’t work for many students, and the disproportionately high costs of living that this report highlights, students are too often being forced into working unmanageable hours in underpaid jobs, taking out extortionate private loans, or dropping out of education altogether. "
The affordability of Portsmouth, Liverpool and Newcastle was boosted by students in all three cities having the highest term-time incomes of around £1,515, £1,425 and £1,421 respectively.
The three cities also have lower weekly rent costs than the UK average of £109, contributing to their affordability.
Elsewhere, the survey found that students at Cambridge and Oxford spend the most time studying each week, at just over 47 and 40 hours respectively compared with a UK average of almost 31 hours. Students in Leicester studied the least at just over 24 hours.
Students in York spend the most time socialising at almost 12 hours a week, with Belfast students socialising the least at just under seven hours.
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Meanwhile, Newcastle students are the biggest weekly spenders on alcohol at £9.32, with Birmingham students spending the least at £4.12.
Dan Jones, Royal Bank of Scotland head of student accounts, said: "Making the most of university can be expensive and there is a massive difference in the costs students face depending on where they choose to study."
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