Normally, there will be a weekly tutorial sheet, largely extracted from previous examination papers and intended for small group discussion and subsequent private study. This one is different; and previous experience suggests that the first exercise alone will, if taken seriously, run over more than a single tutorial - so be prepared to complete it next week.

1. Working in small groups, and using average or group acceptable figures to avoid embarrassment, determine the working capital required to be an undergraduate student. Or, to put it far more crudely, what is the financial cost of being an undergraduate?

   You will need to determine all the elements of income and expenditure which you will meet over a year, and how they vary with time within that year. Remember, we need the full cost, even if someone other than you is paying for many of the items: thus everyone has housing and heating costs and needs to cope with the full rigours of the "overseas fee", even though there may be balancing items of (hitherto unthought of?) income. Then, from that information, construct a cash flow analysis.

   If you are really stuck with the cost of some item, you may be able to obtain plausible data from another group or from your tutor.

There are two reasons for doing this example, when the obvious costing choice would be some example of computing. One is that you can only prepare a reasonable model for something (to see how that model works) when you have reasonable confidence in and understanding of the input data. You can work out the second reason for yourselves!