Almost 20% of students are shunning the traditional academic life away from home to save money by staying on at their parents’ homes while they study, according to a poll of 2,200 students by catering firm Sodexho.

The poll found that 80% of those staying at home paid no rent and had jobs in the area around their home. But they did commute long distances and took no part in university social life, which Essex-based college lecturer David Brewster said cancelled out much of the point of higher education.

“University is as much about taking your first steps socially in the big, wide world as it is the academic learning,” he asserted.

“There is obviously a large body of students that sees coming out of university unencumbered by debts as more important than the degree they get and the social life that is available to them.”