Your complete renting checklist for students heading off to college

Students’ unions can ease pain of living away from home.

For most freshers, living away from home is completely new territory. Setting up a home-away-from-home is enormously exciting but also daunting and — in the current climate — challenging, so a few signposts along the way can help.

Aoife Duff of the Union of Students in Ireland says the first step is to know yourself and your circumstances: What kind of accommodation do you want? And what’s your budget for the year? Then start talking.