More than 150,000 university applicants missed out on a degree place this autumn — 25,000 more than in 2008 — despite record enrolments.

Universities in England defied government orders to recruit no more than an additional 13,000 students. Figures released yesterday show them acceptingthat they accepted nearly 20,000 more applicants than last year.

Universities in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also increased their intakes.

But the largest-ever enrolment of 477,000 students throughoutacross Britain still left many disappointed. Almost 15,000 withdrew their applications and another 139,000, including many who did not achieve the required grades, were left without a place.

The limits on recruitment ordered by John Denham, as Universities Secretary, in a year when applications rose by 10 per cent, prompted fearshad led to fears of even larger numbers of unplaced applicants.

But 47,000 students — more than twice the number forecast by the Universities and College Admissions Service — were successful in the clearing process, which follows the publication of A-level results.

By now, university students will have settled into the new term and be looking hard at the rent they are paying on their halls of residence or student digs. Some might even be wondering, is this the most intelligent way to get accommodation?

The answer is: not necessarily. With property prices in the doldrums, buying a place and using it to offset your costs by renting it out to fellow students has become a more realistic prospect than in many years.

There once was a time when student accommodation meant mouldy walls, a broken toaster and a leaking shower, a time when students had to wear multiple jumpers in the winter to keep warm.

Parents might have been appalled, but the dingy student grotto used to be a rite of passage: a rejection of home and clean sheets and spotless ovens. Not any more. The launch this month of several high-profile luxury student studios, with wi-fi, a flat-screen TV and even a dishwasher is part of a new trend in university living: accommodation for the posh student.

Whereas private accommodation providers made up about 2 per cent of the full-time student accommodation market a decade ago, today the figure is closer to 10 per cent. Unite, the largest provider in the UK, has been opening an average of 13 student residences a year for the past seven years has and created 2,856 beds this year alone.

Students could be hit by higher tuition fees under a Tory government. The Conservative party has signalled it will consider demands to raise the annual fee to £7,000.

Many vice-chancellors are pressuring for a rise from the current total of £3,000, with some even calling for unlimited, American-style fees.

But shadow universities secretary David Willets is adamant that the university bosses must show how students will benefit from the increases.

Non-EU students studying at UK universities have almost doubled in numbers over the last decade, a new report shows.

229,640 students came from non-EU countries in 2007/08, whereas 10 years ago there were 117,290 studying for their degree in Great Britain.

“The report demonstrates how the diversity of the UK higher education sector has increased over the last 10 years, giving students from a wide range of backgrounds the opportunity to study at and beyond first degree level,” said Professor Geoffrey Crossick, the author of the report.

Online fraudsters are targeting British students and foreign holidaymakers by purporting to rent out property that does not exist. The scams work by offering to let property in prime areas at below market rents and asking for deposits, or in some cases full payment, upfront.

Police say they have received hundreds of complaints about online advertisements for flats. Potential tenants are persuaded to part with credit card details or cheques before seeing the property, which then turn out to not exist. And the payments are not returned.

The insurance risks faced by Britain's student population have been highlighted by data from Sainsbury's.

Around 34% of undergraduates polled by the firm said that they do not currently have cover for their belongings.

Sainsbury's Home Insurance also found that the typical student takes around £3,548 worth of valuables to their place of study and that the average student house contains around £14,000 of personal possessions.

Microsoft has announced a deal for cash-strapped students ahead of the start of the University term across the country. Windows 7 will cost anyone with an .EDU email address (eg yourname@ljm.ac.uk) just £30.

The offer is available from 1 October for those who want to pre-order the software, and will run through the release of the OS on 22 October until 3 January 2010, at which point the OS will cost the full price again.

Newspapers have been full of doomladen tales about graduate employment. The class of 2009 has entered one of the worst job markets in recent memory. But the impact of the recession on students does not end there: for those either starting or returning to a course this autumn the chances of finding part-time employment are likely to be similarly affected.

For most full-time undergraduates, part-time employment is a vital source of supplementary income. Many studies indicate that at least 50 per cent of students work during term time and a higher percentage during holidays. About 70 per cent of those who work say they do so to cover basic living expenses.

I have to explain perpetually to acquaintances and strangers why deciding to start a recruitment business in the recession was not bonkers.

The inevitable “so what do you do?” question from people is usually followed by a look of sympathy and a pitying “that’s nice”. People appear to be so accustomed to misery and doom that the idea of bucking the trend is, seemingly, madness.

I graduated from the University of Nottingham a year ago and have since founded Recruitment Squared. Our mission is to make graduates more appealing in the recession and, eventually, out of it.