Norfolk families face some of the longest and most expensive round trips to visit and collect children from uni.

Research from insurance specialist 1st Central shows that, with an average round-trip of 246 miles, taking five hours and 45 minutes, parents will spend £96m just going to collect their kids from uni this Christmas.

And over the course of their children's first full academic year away from home, British parents will collectively spend £383m on visits over almost 1,000 miles of travelling.

The average parent will visit four times in their offspring's first year at uni, but 23% of the survey sample claim to have visited more than seven times in the academic year.

Plymouth parents have to travel the furthest to collect their kids from uni, with a round trip of 373 miles, followed by Aberdeen at 361 miles and Norwich at 339 miles.

The survey claims the average fuel spend is £62.60, although those from the Welsh town of Aberystwyth spend just £20, perhaps owing to its remoteness from large cities and the presence of a very good university in the town.

The insurance broker is urging parents to prepare their cars more thoroughly than usual, to check their tyres, top up their car's fluids if needed and make sure adequate breakdown cover is in place.

Andy James, UK chief executive at 1st Central, said: 'It's staggering to see how expensive driving to and from university to collect students can be but with a child at university myself I share their pain.

'With many parents set to take to the road this December we would advise that they plan ahead and drive as safe as possible to ensure that this cost doesn't rise even higher.'