How to fill your Easter holiday with more than chocolate eggs

It depends on circumstances. From observing the student species for several years, I deduced that their actions are motivated by their most urgent and pressing needs; sleeping whenever required regardless of time or the presence of the moon, for example. A nap between Countdown and Neighbours? Why not! The same theory applies to holiday activities.

Skint students alone in the world without the Bank of Mum and Dad will invariably be found working in bars and shops, trying to support their cavernous overdrafts. These students are often the ones who have very full class timetables, such as medics, dentists and lawyers, who have less time to work during term time.

Entrepreneurial students might come up with clever ways to raise some cash and sometimes create budding businesses. The Summer Break scheme encourages students to become event promoters for the annual Summer Break event in Torquay. They get an amount of money for each ticket sold and bag themselves a ticket in the process. "Summer Break is an amazing opportunity to build on your real-life business skills, which future employers will no doubt regard very highly,” says former Summer Break promoter Simon Ambrose, winner of The Apprentice in 2007. “You also have the opportunity to earn a great deal of cash in the process, which should appeal to all those budding entrepreneurs out there."

Humanities students who flutter about campus sipping coffee during the three-hour gap they have between classes (on their seven-hours-per-week timetable) generally come in for a bit of a shock during the holidays when their groaning reading list raises its grisly head. This is true for those reading subjects such as English literature, where reading is the operative word. Hard work is required: the first week back will require them to have full knowledge of eight Shakespeare plays, the end of Middlemarch, half of Dickens and everything anyone ever wrote about the above. Then week two consists of the intricacies of Anna Karenina and all of the Romantic poets. One good tip is to get CDs of the meaty classics from the library (make sure they are not abridged!) and play them on your MP3 player. That way you can multi-task while you clean the bathroom, paint your nails, are on the road or out jogging, all the time catching up on some T S Eliot or Virginia Woolf.

Ambitious students who have the end in sight before they have begun will have internships booked up for every holiday. They will spend their free months wearing suits and rehearsing what they hope to do for a career. This is a commendable use of time, as it can improve their chances of finding jobs after university. These internships are often unpaid though, which means that students of the skint variety often leave university at a disadvantage to those who could afford to work for free. Some internships are paid mind you, so be on the look out for them to boost your CV and your finances.

Then you have a very rare species: students who return to campus relaxed, refreshed and slightly tanned – they have been travelling. These are the types who either work during term-time or have a very large account with the Bank of Mum and Dad to draw from; however, if you are among the skint variety but in serious need of a break, a good option is to get a job at a festival. That way you get to roll about in the mud with all the other punters – for free!

For more inspiration visit www.summerbreak.co.uk/eventpromoter and www.heavenlyplanetfestival.co.uk