Beware the NUS (Nation of Uninsured Students)

New research from Abbey Home Insurance shows a stark and worrying number of students, 330,000 (30 per cent) are likely to start the academic year without any form of insurance to cover their belongings. Of these, 154,000 (14 per cent) have not considered insurance or do not believe their belongings are valuable enough to justify purchasing it, while 77,000 (7 per cent) claim they could not afford the cost. 99,000 (9 per cent) students did consider getting insurance but either didn’t get round to it or spent the money buying something else.

According to the research, students will take approximately £3,300 worth of belongings to university this year with as many as one in ten students taking over £5,000 worth of belongings.

What belongings should they be covering?

The most common item to grace a student room is a computer. 95 per cent of students own one, and they are now even more common than books (92 per cent), TVs (61 per cent) and stereos (53 per cent). One-in-four students will have some form of exercise or sports equipment to help them keep in shape, while 27 per cent will opt for a more creative past time by taking musical equipment with them.

Prasad Shastri, Head of Insurance Marketing at Abbey, said: "Even though finances can be tight while at university, with a potential total value of belongings in excess of £3,000, students should not be viewing insurance as an optional extra, but as a necessity.

“Over 60,000 students believe the value of their belongings does not justify buying insurance, but we find many people are shocked with how much their belongings are actually worth.

“For the one in five students (19 per cent) who are hoping to rely on their parents policy for protection, we would also advise that they double-check this as they may not actually be covered.”

For more information about Abbey’s home insurance, visit abbey.com.