Bradford University is having to bail out students who are so hard-up they are working day and night to pay off debts.

The amount of hardship funds handed out by administrators to help keep students' heads above water has more than doubled in the past three years.

They paid out £730,747 this year compared to £346,604 in 1998/9 from the fund which is made up of university and Government cash.

Adrian Pearce, dean of students, said: "We have students turning up with no money and no grub. It's progressively getting worse. Students work night shifts in care homes. They're at university by day and a care home by night, so where does sleep come into it? We have a sub-culture now of students working night shifts in shops and businesses around the city where they can earn an income."

Recent cases include a female student who had a full-time job - her friend passed her the notes from lectures. There are other cases of students with two or three separate jobs and some doing regular night shifts as care workers or security guards

Mr Pearce said participation in traditional Wednesday afternoon sports and societies had slumped - because students were catching up on lost sleep or study.

Official guidance is that students should not work more than 15 hours a week.

But some students at Bradford are working in excess of that, Mr Pearce said. They are increasingly missing lectures to work daytime shifts in call centres and shops instead of taking on evening bar work.

Although some students could rely on financial aid from families, others were too proud - or protective. "Sometimes Mum and Dad have gone without a holiday to pay the tuition fees," he said. "So they're not going to go back to them and ask them for £20."

Ali Dodson, communications officer at the Students Union, said: "Student hardship and debt is more of an issue now than before tuition fees were introduced."

But students in Bradford benefited from a lower cost of living than those in the rest of the country. And he said some students may exaggerate their plight when applying for hardship fund money.

Craig Burton, boss of the Bradford recruitment agency The Works, said he had noticed students now seemed more desperate for work.

"They are a lot more available for work now and more reliable, which indicates they are more desperate," he said. "What's terrible is these kids are having to work five evenings a week to make ends meet.