How to save on your studies: book deals and course discounts for students

Dec 27, 2018

The Huffington Post recently revealed that the cost of books and other course equipment is the number one top worry prospective students have about starting university.

Though students tend to bulk-buy their entire reading list during the summer, the price averages out at around £15 a week – almost as much as many people spend on their weekly food shop.

But if you’re heading to uni soon and wondering whether you’ll have to choose between reading and eating, fear not – here are our top tips to help you save on your uni books and course equipment.

Buy books on campus

Campus-based bookshops like Blackwells and John Smith’s are eager to encourage you to buy from them instead of relying on Amazon or eBay. That’s why they’ll occasionally offer bundles of all the books needed for certain modules at a discount price – plus, you won’t have to pay for delivery! It’s worth popping into your campus store to ask about their current deals.

Read classic texts for free

If you’re studying classics, English Literature, or another Humanities or Language degree that’ll require you to crack open Shakespeare or Chaucer, there are tons of free apps and sites that’ll give you access, like Project Gutenberg, Drama Online and Serial Reader.

If you’re a member of your home or uni town’s local library and the library is part of the scheme, you can download and sign into the RB Digital app and access thousands of ebooks and audiobooks for free from a mobile or tablet!

And of course, there’s nothing wrong with popping into the good old bricks-and-mortar library – check out what they’ve got on the shelves before you click the checkout on Amazon!

Get discounts on books

Books are getting more and more expensive nowadays, but with our book discount codes there’s no reason to skip key parts of your course.

At Codes.co.uk, you can get free delivery, £10 discount, and even up to 70% off purchases or subscriptions from retailers like WHSmith, Wordery, Book Depository, Mojoreads and more.

Waterstones also offer 10% student discount so you can save on your textbooks (and maybe grab a few treats for yourself).

Pay less for online courses

If you’re thirsty for knowledge, you might want to take an additional course. Whether you need to learn a specific skill to match a job description, want to pick up a new hobby or learn a language for your gap year after uni, there are plenty of cheap ways to do it.

The search results for online courses might produce some steep prices, but there’s no need to pay upfront. Check out our education discount codes for incredible deals of up to 90% off courses at Udemy, i2i TEFL, The Maths Factor and more.

There are also a huge range of courses in Psychology, Law, Business, Tech, Politics taught by some of the UK’s leading universities available online at FutureLearn.

With these top tips, there’s no chance you’ll ever end up falling behind on your course reading or hurting your bank balance. In fact, you can gain skills that you would never learn in a lecture theatre. You’ll finish the term with extra knowledge in your brain, points on your CV and change in your pocket!