Hi everyone, I’m Mike McGougan and I'm the Students’ Union President here at Huddersfield Students' Union.

When you have been a student as long as I have (I still am!), you pick up a few things along the way like how to write an essay in a few hours (don’t), or how to survive a 9am lecture after a few too many the night before. The main thing you become an expert in however, is moving house and living away from home. 

So, here I’ve compiled some hints & tips for moving in and surviving away from your parents!

Once you have arrived, moved in and put all your stuff away (2 bags of clothes and a TV), go and do a big shop! You’ll soon realise you have nothing, and I mean nothing. Get everything you can think of like spices, salt, pepper, tea, coffee, bleach, and most importantly, tea towels – you wouldn’t believe how often these go missing and how smelly they can get!

The biggest problem I had when living with fellow students was deciding who did the washing up, and even worse; finding out when someone had used my only clean plate! Washing as you go along just makes everyone’s life easier. It might seem strange but having just 1 plate, 1 knife, 1 fork, 1 spoon etc... keep things simple, you get the idea. And, if any one does steal your clean plate then revenge is of course acceptable. A particular favourite method of mine was swapping their oil for their washing up liquid!

A massive top tip for our international students and anyone coming from south of Sheffield.... Huddersfield can be very cold, and students do not like paying for heating. Bring some extra blankets!

Believe it or not, you cannot survive solely on beans and toast, so you are going to need to learn how to cook. Start off simple with pasta and sauce, or a microwave meal and build your way up. If you’re worried that eating something that’s undercooked might kill you, then the best advice I can give you on this is do the “ouch test”: It’s a fairly simple way to check if food is edible; place a knife in the middle of what you are cooking, leave it for 3 seconds, and then place it on the back of your hand. If you scream “ouch”, then it’s probably cooked! I am not liable for any burns or food poisoning...

My final two tips are about getting on with the people you end up living with...

#1: Don’t be the drunk idiot who comes in shouting and screaming after a night out! No one that’s staying in actually cares how good your night was, and you best believe that in the morning when you’re hung-over, their music will be on full-blast.

#2: Finally and most importantly, don’t “Netflix and chill” with any of your housemates. It never ends well, the walls are incredibly thin, and secrets do not stay secrets for long at uni! 

Hope this helps, see you all in a few weeks time!

Mike McGougan

SU President

@MMcGougan90              #HudFreshers             @huddersfieldSU