This week's columnist is a 17-year-old from Baildon who is a student at Salt Grammar School Katherine Brannan

You can buy a lot with £3,000. . .10,000 packets of chewing gum, 158 adult tickets to see Bradford City and 7,894 editions of the Telegraph & Argus. My personal favourite is 16 Gucci iPod covers.

However come September I know where I would be investing my £3,000 if I had it.

Many people claimed that the almost doubling of university tuition fees would lead to a decline in applications to universities and it would appear that they were right.

Statistics have shown that universities have suffered with up to ten per cent fewer applications than last year. Would-be students have been frightened away by the idea of huge debts that they can't pay off, and I for one am not surprised.

The idea of student life appears to be one of constant drinking, socialising and occasional essay-writing. However the rise in tuition fees, with accommodation prices and the cost of living, gives the impression of having to take on 20 part-time jobs just to stay afloat and it's just not worth it.

Of course 20 part-time jobs is an exaggeration but even one part-time job is enough to threaten study time a whole lot more than socialising would.

Tuition fees are necessary to maintain universities, but how can the government expect to ensure that half of all young people go into further education by the year 2010 if they are allowing the cost of entry to be out of reach of most young people?

An argument would be that students can take out loans that are repayable once the student is out of university and is earning more than £15,000 a year, however even this is a scary prospect.

With fewer young people going to university, are we being deprived of thousands of future doctors and teachers that are so badly needed?

Many students have now chosen to study closer to home or live at home in order to reduce the cost of living as a student. Why should we have to do that?

Part of the experience of being at university is to meet new people and have new experiences away from home life - to become independent.

But the sheer cost of it is putting students off gaining from these experiences.

By studying closer to home students are often choosing courses that would not be of as much interest to them as one further afield, which could lead to them not achieving their potential.

Every young person should have the opportunity to go to university without the constant financial worry, and if the applications continue to decline then the government will have to take note.

I am applying to university for September and I hope that many more people will apply for next year. However if you don't feel like going to university and have that £3,000 to spare, those iPod covers do look like a worthwhile investment. . .