Students in Oxford pay through the nose for poor quality accommodation and spend all their spare time drowning their sorrows in the pub, according to a new survey.

The unflattering portrait of student life in the city is painted in a poll by insurance firm Endsleigh, which identified Oxford as having the worst landlords, second most expensive rents and forth hardest-drinking students in the UK.

Thousands of students contributed to Endsleigh's Student Housing Survey 2003 which found that the average student in Oxford pays £77.20 a week in rent. Complaints about landlords were joint-highest at Oxford and Newcastle.

The survey showed that only Sheffield, Durham and Nottingham have harder drinkers, with students in Oxford getting drunk with their housemates seven times a month on average.

The findings about housing came as little surprise, but the view that Oxford students were hard drinkers was challenged by David Kyffin, landlord of the Kings Arms in Holywell Street, a renowned stu- dent watering hole. "I've been in this pub since 1970 and students do not drink anywhere near as much now as they used to," he said.

Oxford University Student Union president Helena Puig Larrauri said: "I think there probably is a culture of going to the pub for a drink to discuss things, which is probably because there is no central student union here.

She added: "It's certainly true that housing is very, very expensive in Oxford and moves to raise the rents in colleges worry us very much. The only place mentioned in the survey that is more expensive than Oxford is London.

"We have anecdotal evidence of problems with landlords, especially in east Oxford."

Oxford Housing Rights director Nigel Kitt said: "We frequently hear cases of people not getting their deposits back, illegal evictions, housing in disrepair or unhealthy living conditions, like excessive damp."