Friday's Letters: What life is really like for a hard-working student

Contrary to the majority view that students are parasitic, drunken hoodlums, whose studying credentials go as far as a night on the tiles and subsequent visit to a grotty takeaway establishment, I would like to declare that, as a student, this negative generalisation is light years away from the truth.

Living in a one-bedroomed flat with my girlfriend, I very rarely get the chance to go out and experience the high-tempo nightlife that Leeds has to offer.

Ah, so I must be under the thumb? Actually, no. Having had one night out since December, I am resigned to the fact that my time at university will be spent with my head in my books or staring at my laptop screen.

With the little spare time I do have, evenings and weekends, I work 20 hours per week in order to pay for the bare essentials needed to survive.

Unlike some students in this country, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I come from a working-class background in Liverpool, and am the eldest of seven children.

I was taught from an early age to work for my money, as nothing in life is handed to you on a plate.

My parents cannot afford to fund me through university, therefore, the loans I receive are essential as without these I would not be able to afford accommodation in the city.

It galls me that while I work a 20-hour week and spend four days a week at university to try to make a better life for myself in the future, many of my peers need not work as they have the "Bank of Mum and Dad" at their disposal.

Sure, there are negative connotations surrounding most groups in our society today. Teenagers who wear "hoodies" are labelled as yobbish tear-aways, when the reality is that the vast majority are doing no harm and the wearing of the hood is simply a craze or fashion

statement.