Students are not the first target group that springs to mind for developers. But in these shaky market conditions they represent a solid tenant base. In the run-up to Easter, undergraduates arrange their housing for the following academic year. Negotiations between friends may become fraught, as may phone calls home, during which worried parents are urged to part with sizeable deposits to secure rental properties that they have never seen - and which will not be lived in for a further six months.

There is little a landlord or managing agent likes better than the signature of a parental guarantor on a tenancy agreement. This near-certainty of payment is why the student rental market is seen as a safe bet. And with students signing up six months in advance, yields can be predicted with more foresight than in the regular lettings market.

The UK's biggest student housing website, accommodation for students.com, reports that student rents have increased by 19 per cent over the past five years and by 1.5 per cent in the past year; £62.40 is now the average student rent per week in the UK. In light of the fluctuations over the past 18 months in the wider rental market, an increasing number of mainstream landlords may now tailor their portfolios to a specific part of the market, such as students or the elderly.

While the annual supply of students is fairly recession-proof, the constancy of the student market may be less stable than it appears if the findings of the UK Youth Parliament's recent survey are to be believed. Thirty-six per cent of the 1,000-plus young people surveyed said that the recession would influence their choice of university, perhaps causing them to pick one near by that would enable them to live at home.

Source: Time Online
For the full article please visit: http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/investment/article6021093.ece

Facebook users may feel socially successful in cyberspace but they are more likely to perform poorly in exams, according to new research into the academic impact of the social networking website.

The majority of students who use Facebook every day are underachieving by as much as an entire grade compared with those who shun the site.

Researchers have discovered how students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and "poking" others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work.

A skint student has already raised £1,000 towards his university fees - thanks to an Internet brainwave.

Skint Spyros Pyrgiotis, 23, is the youngest person ever to secure a place on a prestigious MBA course.

But with no job and multiple loan refusals the budding entrepreneur turned to the internet to fund his £17,000 course fees.

His website www. thetextpage .com is just that - a page full of text which links to advertisers websites.

A new system was introduced earlier this month controlling the way in which visa nationals have to apply for visas to work and study in the UK.

The system is points-based, like the one operated in Australia. Students form a very significant percentage of the number of migrants that come to the UK every year and the government says that it is committed to encouraging people from overseas to study and train in Britain: that makes sense, because international students directly contribute £2.5 billion to the UK economy in tuition fees alone and Pamela Lenton, Doctor of Economics at the University of Sheffield (August 2007) put the total annual value of international students at nearly £8.5 billion!

Hard-up students on Scottish campuses are being increasingly targeted by loan sharks as bank credit dries up.

The National Union of Students in Scotland is receiving reports that unscrupulous lenders are gaining a foothold across the country. Two weeks ago, The Scotsman revealed universities are running out of hardship cash to give to students in dire financial straits.

University principals said part-time jobs were drying up and parents were struggling to help their children as they also found themselves in financial woe. Now, "private lenders" are taking advantage of the harsh climate.

A new generation of parents is turning into property-owning landlords to help their teenage school leavers through university.

The trend to buy them a student house to share with pals and 'live cheap' is burning the fingers of many amateur landlords who are "biting off more than they can chew" says the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

This year’s race to be number one in the rankings of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers has been the closest since the league table was first published in 1999. More than 15,000 students who graduated from university this summer took part in the poll to find Britain’s most sought-after graduate employers, and yet just seven votes separate the top two organisations.

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If you've sat at home watching a soap thinking "I can do better than that" or always wanted to be one of the young writers on Skins, then now is your chance to get your foot in the door.

As part of the Media Guardian's International Television Festival in Edinburgh, people over 18 can apply to take part in several days of free television masterclasses and lectures. Successful applicants will be able to attend lectures by leading TV personalities, with previous speakers at The Network being as diverse as legendary newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald and Russell T Davies, writer of the new Doctor Who.

Teenage cook Sam Stern dishes out tips and recipes to help students survive their first term.

THE STRATEGY

Savvy planning and smart shopping are the key to good cooking on a budget. So save yourself cash, time and grief by getting a strategy.

Here are some top tips – ways to make the most of every meal without emptying your bank account...

Uncertainty in the jobs market is prompting more Scots to apply to higher education, universities said yesterday.

New figures show there has been a 5% rise in the number of Scots applying for a university place, with school-leavers and mature entrants both showing increases of 3.5% and 12% respectively.

The figures, from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), also show the number of international student applications continues to increase, with a 14% rise.