A new survey has found that parents took out £37million worth of loans last year in order to pay for their children’s education.

The survey by Sainsbury’s Finance showed that around 4,400 personal loans were taken out last year, with the average amount borrowed being £8,500. The loans were taken out by parents in order to cover the costs for their children’s university fees, school fees or to cover the costs of general education.

Sainsbury’s said that they had looked at the market share of thousands of personal loans in order to find out what people were spending their money on.

The survey also showed that parents were increasingly turning to borrowing in order to finance private schooling for their children, with 1,100 loans being taken out last year – costing £12.25million.

The fees for private schooling can be costly with the average private school fee being £4,186 per term which excludes any additional nursery costs. The Independent Schools Council showed that private school fees have increased by 4% this year.

As well as general and private school fees the survey also highlighted the fact that parents are still paying their children’s university fees with 1,900 of the loans being taken out to cover the costs of university or college fees. Tuition fees for universities can cost up to £3,225 per year – a cost of almost £10,000 for a three year course.

The remainder of the loans were taken out for general education costs including books, trips and school clothing, with a total of £11.26million being taken out by parents.