University life starts by your need to find student accommodation. somewhere to live during your time there. Your room is your home so make yourself comfortable and feel at home. Utilise the space you have if you use a shared kitchen claim a cupboard and part of fridge.

You may want to find a student flat to rent or rent a house with a group of friends with a student tenancy. Finding flatmates will help you share and reduce budget costs.

I recommend you start looking early, your university will be able to help and provide a list of student housing. Look at a selection of properties before making a decision. We found a range of properties in price and size so don’t grab the first one you see.

When looking for student accommodation four to six bedrooms should be fine depending on how many want to move in together. When you find a place make sure everyone in the group views the house to make sure everyone is happy and will like living there. It needs to be a joint decision.

I recommend you go for fully-furnished with a washing machine or laundrette close by. Also it helps if the house is close to the uni so you can roll-out of bed and get there on time. It’s also useful if your student accommodation is close to town or local shops (so you grab some food and can top-up on booze at the off-licence).

The biggest feature you need to look for with your student accommodation is a large living room and communal living space, a fair size kitchen is also an advantage.

Read and check the letting contract before signing it. Make sure you understand the bond, monthly heating/water bills, the rent to pay and any how the deposit works.

When you move in have a house warming party. A student house means parties, alcohol, noise and wild sex. However, be nice and considerate to your new neighbours. I recommend calling around and introducing yourselves and invite your new neighbours to your gatherings. If you are planning a party let them know beforehand. So your neighbours will already not be too pleased. Should your parties go overboard your neighbours will complain to the council.

As a student group you’ll need to agree on sharing the joint responsibilities of running a household. Sharing the rent is easy however water, heating, lighting, TV license and other bills and expenses will be due.

Shopping and cleaning are other issues. You may notice your food supplies and nibbles disappearing and no one will admit responsibility for taking them. I suggest you keep your precious Jaffa Cakes and snacks hidden somewhere safe beside your allocated cupboard. A good tip is to buy a small beer fridge, which can also store a back up milk supply.

Your student house doesn’t come with a cleaner. Rubbish piles up and bins will be overflowing if you don’t empty them. You will need to stock up on cleaning products and may need to invest in a vacuum cleaner. After numerous parties and slob like attitudes your student accommodation will look like a landfill site.

There will usually be a disgusting member of your student group, the one that doesn’t pull they weight on cleaning duties and has a tendency to let mould and fungus grow on cups and watch food turn nasty. They’ll never recycle empty cans or bottles, they’ll leave pizza and kebab boxes around, they’ll never buy cleaning materials, wipe up spillages, attempt to clean out the fridge or use bleach down the puke ridden toilet.

It’s important to keep on top of the mess, filth and dust that accumulates and that you all “muck” in as a family unit to keep it clean and tidy. It’s not easy dealing with the messy lazy bones types. I suggest you mention and drop hints it’s unlikely that a member of the opposite sex will want to stay over with them if they’ll have a smelly room with dirty laundry on the floor and live like unclean beast.

It’s useful to have a student friendly landlord and one that will respond to faults and fix them quickly like a broken boiler in midwinter or a leaking water pipe.

Make sure you get some content insurance to protect your laptop, TV, game consoles and porn stash. You may be covered on your parents home insurance but double check first. You probably won’t not have much content to insure so consider gadget only policies and take out accidental cover. When you go out make sure you lock doors and windows and keep valuables out of sight.

Don’t let these warning put you off. Living with friends in a student house is awesome fun, even if you have the odd argument about the cleaning rota. Enjoy your new home and freedom.

Students seem to get bad press and treated with contempt by parts of society. We are stereotyped as unemployed, drinking, shagging, layabouts living on cigarettes, soup and beans on toast. In reality student life isn’t all parties, wild sex and drugs. I think many people have the misconception and confuse students with seventies rock bands or the images on TV.

It makes for more entertaining TV to portray “us students” as good for nothing party animals then watching students reading and researching in the library. Filming students working would be dull viewing. It’s better to have students dancing topless on tables.

In fact moving away from home, mingling with strangers in a strange city is all a bit frightening. You might need a beer to settle your nerves. However if getting drunk and mastering how to drift from bar to bar is your three year university plan then your balance of booze and work is one sided.

This is the image and label many people have of students and our university lifestyle. We’re all studying to be professional  procrastinators to avoid real work.

The other day I was dressed in my suit and tie going to a job interview. I met a middle aged lady at the bus stop and she started up conversion about the weather and bus timetables. The small talk was going well until she asked what I did for a living seen as I was all smartly dressed up. My response was “I’m a student at the uni”.

Well  that response seemed to cut the conversion short. The air felt a bit awkward as I could sense she was displeased with my answer. I’m not sure what she was expecting me to say but she didn’t seem happy that I was a student and not some hot shot businessman who unfortunately had to catch the bus because my Mercedes was in for a service.

I felt labelled and judged. One minute a high-flyer, the next a deadbeat who drinks ten pints a night, eats beans on toast five times a week and who just happens to be in a nice suit. While I have struggled budgeting with food and yes some meals have been beans on toast it doesn’t make me Jack the Ripper.

I wish I could party all night long and have sex in the nightclub toilet yet the reality of student life is very different to that seen in film and television.

I admit even my expectations of the student lifestyle were higher. I thought it would be a bit more like the experience you see on TV but after your rent, bills, food, transport costs, text books there’s not much money left to buy crack cocaine.

Of course I enjoy a beer. I’m not denying that. I enjoy the odd all night session of booze. Students need to work hard and play hard so we need a blowout once in a while.

On the other side of the fence I also enjoy a slower night out with the new girlfriend. When we go out I may even dress smart, share some fine wine and a meal that’s not beans on toast. When money’s tight we both enjoy a quiet night in together watching TV and listening to music. It’s almost perfect, if only she’d dance topless on the coffee table.

I knew it would be difficult to maintain a long distance relationship when I moved away to university. Been away from the one you love is tough. When I left we both agreed to make it work and see each other whenever possible.

Keeping a long distance relationship a live takes effort. I admit it’s hard to cope when you miss someone and are used to seeing them in the flesh most days.

I’ve been arguing with my woman and my name is currently “mud” in certain social circles. I think she saw me going to university as me leaving her. I think she thought it was easy for me to move away and leave her behind. Believing I was going out having fun every night. I wish.

Having no money to go out partying, buy PlayStation Games or treat the girlfriend is a depressing feeling. If you’re struggling to pay the bills and trying to survive on little cash then long distance relationships get even harder.

Talking and keeping in contact everyday is vital. If possible get a unlimited call deal or speak over the Internet with WhatApp, Skype, Google Hangouts or use video chat with services like TinyChat at https://tinychat.com using a webcam.

See each other whenever you can. Finding the time and money isn’t easy. The travel expenses can mount up so put some money aside so you can see each other regularly. If the money can stretch to it go on a romantic weekend away.

Send them gifts and flowers to show you are thinking about them. Write them a letter or send a romantic email. Be honest with each other, express your feelings and keep the fire burning.

That’s the long distance relationship advice offered by experts. However it can still go wrong. Relationships fade out and turn sour because the distance of the heart is too much and too far for one or both people in the relationship.

If it doesn’t work out it can be painful to accept. Right now am going through a difficult emotional period in my life. I know moving away from each other doesn’t help and yet it will only work if both parties are willing to make it work.

Fading love hurts. I am not on fire.