This figure from new research represents less than half of what students should be spending on food, according to advice from the University of York and University of Reading. They suggest students should be spending between £32 and £44 a week on food to eat healthily.

The research – conducted by Voucherbox– also contained other troubling findings, with 24 per cent of students cutting their spending on books and study materials in order to eat.

The University of Cambridge’s website says that most weekly kitchen facilities charges – levied at some colleges – are around £13-£19, which doesn’t include the cost of around £3-£6 for individual meals.

A third-year student at Emmanuel College told Varsity that catered halls were both a “blessing and a curse”. If cheap, they can “liberate students from hassle and monetary worries”, but equally if expensive they can “leave little other option” when there are often poor self-catering facilities.

Students surveyed also claimed that they would have to cut down on heating and medicines, as they could not otherwise afford to eat.

70 per cent of students surveyed also revealed that they had eaten an “unhealthy or strange meal” due to constraints on their budget. Bananas with baked beans and cereal for each meal of the day were given as examples of such “strange” meals.

The study mentions other “horror stories”, such as having stale tortilla chips for all meals of the day, or living off baked beans for an entire week.

One student at Anglia Ruskin who survives on the low figure of £15 a week said: “I’m not concerned about my health, just price. I don’t mind eating the same thing all week – it’s cheap, it tastes good and makes me feel good after.” 

Voucherbox manager Shane Forster said that students having to cut back on other “important amenities” was “very concerning” and highlighted a “very real, grim reality.”

The findings echo research by Student Money Saver earlier this year, which found that 40 per cent of students have gone without food due to concerns over money and that nearly a third have considered dropping out due to financial insecurity.