Top 5 ESSENTIAL Tech Items For University in 2024
Starting university can be a stressful experience, especially as many students are leaving home for their first time. To add to that, if it’s your first year, you never know what you need to buy or take with you.
That’s why I decided to share my top five tech items I had when I was at university. Not only that, but I will be sharing my opinion about them from the point of view of a student and an ex-university IT staff.
Whether you’re starting university for the first time, or you are a returning student, I encourage you to read on as I will be sharing tips and advice throughout the entire article.
So, without any further ado, here are five essential tech items for university in 2024…
1. A Laptop
I wanted to start this list with a laptop. I know that this may sound like an obvious item, but I wanted to share some tips about the laptop you take to university with you.
This may sound strange, especially coming from a Mac guy, but I recommend getting a Windows laptop. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that unless your course specifically states that you will be using a Mac, you will likely be using Windows.
Having a Windows device not only makes it easier for you to follow along in tutorials, but if you need any help with software that you are new to or if you have a technical issue, it will be easier for staff to troubleshoot.
Speaking about software, you may need to use professional software as part of your degree, some of which may not be available on macOS. This is something that I have frequently seen as a student at university. Furthermore, your university may supply you with licences to premium software that only works on Windows.
The other reason I am recommending a Windows laptop is that they are usually cheaper to replace and repair if something goes wrong. You may not think it will happen to you, but when I worked at university as an IT technician, I remember damaged or broken personal laptops being a common occurrence. Accidents happen, it’s a part of life.
Outside all that, it’s good to get experience using the Windows operating system for when you graduate and get that dream job, as it is likely that you will be using Windows out in industry.
Since graduating from university, I worked in several industries, but never had a Mac device as my workstation, it was always Windows.
But it’s worth checking to see what your university recommends, as your course may require you to use a Mac, especially if it’s a media degree.
2. A good set of active-noise cancelling headphones
One of the best purchases I made for university was a decent set of active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones. They allowed me to focus on research and assignment work in noisy environments.
Active noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds block out the surrounding noise, making them ideal for noisy places such as student halls, cafés and public transport.
I used them a lot when trying to settle down and focus on research and writing assignments, and they worked extremely well.
When I started university and was on a budget, I invested in a budget set of ANC headphones, they weren’t as good as the premium models, but they did the job. I am not sponsored by Soundcore to say this, but as Soundcore do some brilliant budget products. Based on my experience of trying these products out, I recommend checking out the Soundcore Q30 ANC headphones or if you prefer earbuds, I recommend the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 NC are possibly my favourite budget earbuds and my previous everyday drivers. Not only do they sound great, but considering the price, the ANC is brilliant.
3. An iPad
The second-best investment I made was an iPad with an Apple Pencil.
During my first year at university, I remember having to carry quite a lot of books, paperwork, and notebooks in my bag and not only was it making my bag heavy, but it was also messy.
Investing in an iPad allowed me to go paperless, and it was honestly one of the best decisions I made while I was at university. It made me more organised, and I was able to annotate books and academic literature without actually writing inside a real book.
The iPad became a secondary device to my laptop, I used it in the same way as I did with physical books and notebooks, it became my default note-taking and research device. I stored all my books and academic literature on it. It was my planner and the device I watched movies and TV shows on.
4. A Portable Hard Drive
When you’re at university, you will need to store a lot of files. From assignment work, to research material and notes, they all take up a lot of storage space.
However, that is not why I am recommending a portable hard drive, I’m recommending a portable hard drive for backing up your work.
You may not think it will happen to you, but trust me when I tell you that files can become corrupt, deleted or lost and when we are talking about university work it just isn’t worth not having a backup plan in place.
It’s worth checking with your university to see if they offer the Microsoft 365 app suite, as not only will that have the Microsoft Office package, but it will also likely include OneDrive cloud storage. That is where I recommend saving your working copy of your work.
As a secondary copy, I recommend backing everything up to a USB flash drive, which I’ll cover in more detail in the next section. I recommend backing up your work onto your USB drive at the end of every 1 to 3 days. Then backing up your flash drive to your portable hard drive on a weekly basis, keeping different versions of your backed up work on it.
I know that this may sound like overkill, but when you’re spending over £9000 annually on university, it’s worth it.
I recommend investing in at least a 1 TB external hard drive, and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, I only used a basic hard drive I found on sale when I was at university, and it still works today. In terms of recommendations, most portable hard drives don’t differ much, but I like the WD Elements series (Not sponsored to say this).
5. USB Flash Drive
Finally, I recommend investing in a couple of USB-Flash drives. I say couple because they will each have their purposes.
One of these purposes should be your backup routine, as stated above, I recommend backing up your work every 1 to 3 days onto a USB flash drive, then backup everything from that onto your portable hard drive on a weekly basis.
The second purpose is for moving files from your laptop to a university computer should you need to.
Like with the hard drives, you don’t really need anything fancy, I recommend making sure that they are at least USB 3.0 and that they have at least 64 GB of storage space. I’m quite a fan of the SanDisk Ultra range, specifically these as you get two flash drives in the pack, both of which are different colours, which makes them easy to tell apart and find if you misplace them.
I’m generally not a fan of using USB-flash drives, however, when you’re at university, they are a cheap solution that tends to work. However, I don’t recommend using them to work from or to store the primary copy of your work, as they can and do go wrong frequently.
My advice when it comes to USB flash drives is that you expect them to fail, that way, you’ll learn not to keep files on them for long.
I’ve seen USB flash drives fail countless times, from being snapped to files becoming corrupt and the entire device being lost. It’s one of those things, it’s a small device that people tend to forget about.
Final Thoughts
University life can be tough, but with the help of the items listed in this article you can honestly make things easier. From ensuring that your work is backed up, to sitting down and getting on with work without any distractions.
As someone who completed two university degrees and worked in a university IT department, these are my recommendations when it comes to the tech items you should have when at university.
What are your recommendations? Let us know in the comments!
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links.