Art students get a bad press. Easily caricatured as too lazy to try for a proper degree, they also keep hitting the headlines with off-the-wall concept-ual stunts that seem to confirm everyone’s worst fears about the state of modern art.

Now’s your chance to discover the truth. Whether you’re interested in spotting new talent (with work at affordable prices) or just want to know what the next generation of Young British Artists is getting up to, this summer’s free student shows are the best way to see the latest in contemporary art, photography and design. As usual, strong BA and MA shows are expected at such established London colleges as Goldsmiths, the Royal College of Art and Central St Martins College of Art and Design (see box). But the season begins in grand style this weekend with the opening of Free Range, Europe’s largest graduate art and design show, in East London.

“Degree shows represent an explosion of talent on a massive scale,” says Tamsin O’Hanlon, the show’s 29-year-old founder and project manager. “This is the best opportunity for industry players, collectors and the general public to discover artists in fledgeling mode, before their reputations and prices soar.”

Now in its sixth year and featuring work from 55 British art schools and universities, Free Range attracted more than 100,000 visitors last year, putting it in the same league as major art shows at the Royal Academy of Arts or the Victoria and Albert Museum. During June and July, it will host the work of more than 2,000 fine art, photography and design students in a former brewery complex on Brick Lane.

“The first two weeks deal with design, then there are shows on photography and art, including painting, textiles and sculpture, all spread out over the next two months,” explains O’Hanlon, a South African-born graphic design graduate. “But it’s always a mixed bag. The final fortnight features a bit of everything and is dedicated to a mixture of all media.”

Given that the undergraduate and degree shows also double as a supermarket for serious art collectors, O’Hanlon attributes the event’s popularity to the trend for buying affordable art for the home.

“We don’t take a commission and are keen to create an informal environment where both professionals and the public can meet and befriend students, and discuss their work directly with them,” she says. “We try not to be as tired or boring as some of the more established art fairs.”

Trends to look out for this year, she says, include the playful use of toys and kitsch in adult contexts, and the continuing tendency of students to experiment outside their disciplines.

As a result the work promises to suit a range of tastes, from the humorous, such as Patrick Goddard’s human plug installation, to the strange, such as the Goldsmiths student who has created a bird feeder into which a loved one’s remains can be placed, to be eaten by passing sparrows.

“It’s a very good time to be graduating, with lots of degree shows of young artists providing a great taste of the Zeitgeist,” says Sarah Douglas, of the London-based art consultancy firm Exhibit-K. “The ideal for students is obviously to be picked up by a gallery or make contacts with a number of collectors, but today graduates don’t simply hope to be snapped up by a single big collector such as Charles Saatchi.”

You’d think that was every young artist’s dream, but despite the lucrative example of Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst, the work of many art school prodigies that gets discovered and bought up in bulk ends up languishing unseen in warehouses.

“Most artists would prefer their work to be seen and publicly or critically acclaimed,” Douglas explains. “Today’s students want to leave their options open rather than sell to one collector who wishes to buy their entire output in one go, only for it never to be seen again. My advice would be to talk to any artist whose work you are interested in buying. They might well be working on other projects or be appearing in future group shows.”

Douglas, 24, finished an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art last year, and will conduct tours of this summer’s shows. “There’s such a variety of work on offer. But there will always be interesting crossovers, such as painters who engage in performance or video artists who produce sculpture.”

Designers are also thinking outside the proverbial box in an industry in which self-promotion is key, according to Ben Freeman, a graphic design student at Camberwell College of Art and Design. “They (designers) are crossing over into the fine art world and rejecting the rigid idea of design as a kind of science, rather than something more creative.”

Freeman, who has created prints for the fashion designer Alexander McQueen and converted a caravan into an art gallery, is exhibiting a film in this year’s show. What does he hope to get out of it? Serious networking is a part of it, he admits. “But I’m also confident that we throw the best party.”

Free Range 2006, The Old Truman Brewery, London E1 (www.free-range.org.uk), until Jul 24. For Sarah Douglas’s tours, see www.exhibitk.org

The next big things?

Royal College of Art Be quick to catch the first part of the degree show, which ends on Sunday. Generation: Summer Show 2006, Kensington Gore, London SW7 (www.rca.ac.uk), part one until Sun; part two Jun 23-Jul 2

Slade School of Fine Art Student art and videos are previewed online. Fine Art Show, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1 (www.ucl.ac.uk/slade), Jun 8-11

Goldsmiths College Sculptures and reclaimed building materials feature. Fine Art Degree Show, New Cross, London SE14 (www.goldsmiths.ac.uk), Jun 16-19

Glasgow School of Art Known for painting. Degree Show, Renfrew Street, Glasgow (www.gsa.ac.uk), Jun 17-24

Ruskin School of Drawing Part of the University of Oxford. Ruskin Degree show, High Street, Oxford (www.ruskin-sch.ox.ac.uk), Jun 17-23

Central St Martins The fine art degree show is the one to watch. BA Fine Art show, Charing Cross Road, London WC2 (www.csm.arts.ac.uk), Jun