Now that tuition fees are hitting home, students are beginning to realise that a year spent working or travelling before applying for university could help to avert a costly change of heart mid-course by ensuring they are ready for serious study when they arrive.

But where do you start when choosing a gap year? The answer is simple, says Tom Griffiths, founder of gapyear.com, now the largest gap year provider. “Start with two questions: What do I have to offer? What do I want to achieve?” If it is adventure or career points you want, avoid the well-worn Antipodean routes of the Oz-Experience and its New Zealand equivalent. The affordability of travel has flooded such schemes with troops of Identikit backpackers. The result is not unlike a package holiday to Spain, save for the settings in which activities take place.

Recently there has been a shift from backpacking towards volunteering. Raleigh International and others organise trips that are part adventure holiday, part community work. If you want development work, VSO (formerly Voluntary Service Overseas) or Student Partnership Worldwide (SPW) may be for you, though you must pay part of the placement’s costs.

Both SPW and VSO’s Global Exchange programmes have a 50-50 split between local and Western volunteers. Work done has a lasting effect on the communities as the presence of local volunteers enables an approach in keeping with the national culture. Eight months in Tanzania with SPW will cost £3,600 and three months through VSO’s Global Exchange £600.

Africa is the most popular destination for volunteer work this year, says i-to-i, a project provider that sends 5,000 volunteers on 500 projects annually. Its most popular venue this year is a children’s community project in Kenya that includes some language teaching, but again you must pay a contribution to the placement costs — £775 for one week plus £100 a week thereafter — and cover flight costs.

Growing concern about global warming means that adventure courses and expeditions are booming, as many students sign up for “once in a lifetime” experiences before such travel becomes too difficult. The British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) offers trips to the Arctic and Antarctic, combining adventure with conservation work through the Royal Geographic Society. A nine-week expedition on HMS Endurance, the Royal Navy’s icebreaker, visits the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic peninsula, where conservation work focuses on penguins.

Environmental fears appear to be partly behind a revival of train travel through Europe, which has also benefited from a big marketing push. InterRail’s Global Pass covers 30 countries in the EU, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Turkey. A youth ticket (for under-25s) costs €399 (£270) for one month of continuous travel.

UK projects can be more rewarding than is often assumed — an Arsenal Football Club gap year anyone? Arsenal’s community programme offers a chance to gain coaching, refereeing and teaching qualifications during three months at the Emirates Stadium.

Conservation work can be done at home with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV). Work is unpaid, but it costs nothing to take part and you receive training in areas that interest you. The Community Service Volunteers (CSV) offers placements working with disadvantaged young people and those with learning disabilities that provide accommodation and a small payment.

However you spend time, aim to build your independence, problem-solving skills and self-confidence. Minimum aims should be not to rack up huge credit-card debts and to get something for your CV. Seek options specific to your degree subject and career hopes and go for a “life-changing experience”.

Times recommends

• Students face big rise in university fees
• Students to rate lecturers online
• Lord heads team to look at raising tuition fees