A quarter of UK students with jobs are working more than 40 hours a week to supplement their income, according to a survey.

Research commissioned by the internet service freefund.com shows a further 18% of students with jobs work more than 30 hours.

Four out of 10 working students said the situation was having a detrimental effect on their results.

Two-thirds of parents planning to send their children to university or college said they were concerned they would not be able to afford it.

Researchers Taylor Nelson Sofres interviewed 2,022 people around the UK by telephone last month.

Their report also suggests that the average student debt is �5,286.

Scholarships on offer

Faced with the prospect of falling into heavy debt, 37% of students said they would increase the number of hours they spent working, 31% said they would turn to their parents for help - and 3% said they would turn to crime.

Freefund.com began in Sweden in January and is now launching in the UK.

It aims eventually to offer students around Europe a database of scholarships and bursaries offered by universities, businesses and other organisations, with advice on how best to apply for them.

Its managing director, Iain Aitken said: "Our research has shown that the majority of students and their parents have never considered applying for a scholarship or bursary.

"Many are not even aware of their existence and don't know how to apply for them.

"In a recent 'mystery shopper' exercise, we contacted 50 universities to find out how much they made available in scholarships and bursaries - not one was able to give us a definitive answer."

It estimates that there are billions of euros available to students - but says the process of identifying and applying for these can be lengthy and complicated.

The result is that thousands of students - and their parents - are missing out on funding which, in many cases, they would qualify for.

Freefund.com also intends to encourage the establishment of new scholarships.