College costs €7,000 per annum

As the cost of sending a child to college rises, Business Correspondent Conor Keane reviews options to finance third-level education.

THE cost of keeping a third-level student at college for nine months is €7,000 a year and rising €21,000 for a basic three-year degree course.

That's big money and gets bigger if there is more than one child in a family at college or if, as greater numbers do each year, the student takes a postgraduate degree.