Do most students take a printer to uni?

[Katiecan]

DS1 wants me to buy him a printer for uni. Have any of your DC taken a printer to uni with them? Is it the norm? DS says going to the library to print is a faff and works out quite pricey. Any recommendations for a cheap printer please?

Mature student here. I have a printer but I've never once used it for uni. Only used really for Cubs admin and resources!

Some Uni’s even give you a printing allowance

Another no.
DC1 took one, but that was in lockdown so no access to university buildings. Didn't use it much, other than for printing stuff for their own amusement!
DC2 - does everything online.
DC3 - definitely not. Needed to something with a PDF, and found access to free converter software via the uni portal. Also sent home all their empty lever arch files unused, and claimed to not have any notepads the other day!

It depends on whether he finds it difficult to read things on screens. Sometimes, if you have to look at multiple documents at the same time, it can be easier to have things on paper.
There are also occasionally documents that require a physical signature, so these need to be printed. It's becoming less common, but universities are particularly useless at implementing things like e-signatures.
Most universities will have printers in multiple locations (not just in the library): you send a job into a central print queue and can release it on any networked printer.

Neither of mine have their own printer, on the rare occasions they need something printed both just use the library on campus.

everything is online these days.

Is it really relevant what others do? Everyine does diffetn subjects and have different learning styles. If your DC wants this for uni, I'd support it. Have a look on google and do some research as usually the printer is cheap, it's the ink that cost the money

I'm a fairly recent (old) graduate... I'd say - depends what subject you're doing. I found uni printing costs were so cheap that I tended to use theirs a hell of a lot of the time - I'd fall back on using mine if I wanted to print in colour because the number of colour-enabled ones on campus was much smaller, but black and white I tended to use the uni ones.

I did find an iPad and Apple Pencil to be an amazing combo though - I would download the slides and then scrawl all over them. Started the course as the only pencil user and finished with half the course having picked them up.

We got the same advice about iPad and Apple Pencil at the Offer Holders' Day at the weekend, @CoffeeWithCheese . I should say for anyone thinking about this, other platforms are available, i.e. my ds has a Samsung S8 tablet with s-pen, which does the same thing.

Most work is submitted online and there are also printers in the library at any uni I have ever visited .

I'm a lecturer and have seen a massive shift since covid - no one ever has pen and paper in front of me, it's all tablets (mathematical subject so not easy to take notes on a laptop).

I don't think they ever print these days, whereas even just a few years ago they would have printed lecture slides at the library.

As a PP said upthread, it's really about what your DS wants. My DS simply prefers pen and paper. He says he spends so long on his phone, tablet and desktop he likes the "break" of paper lecture notes, etc. He says he's too easily distracted when working on a laptop or tablet and says he gets more work done when he takes his folder of paper notes etc to the library or study room with his devices turned off. It's strange really, as in every other part of his life, he's obsessed with devices and does everything else on them. It's just his preference. We bought him an ipad "pencil" but he doesn't like it at all. Even when he was at school, he hated the online text books and always wanted a printed copy or did printouts himself! All that said, he doesn't have his own printer - his uni have printers all over campus - every building/dept has one in the reception/entrance area, and his off-campus student accommodation block also have printers in communal areas. I'd have been happy to buy him a printer, but he's always said he doesn't need one.

I think the OP needs to make sure their DS understands that lots of things (if not all) can be done online, and that there will be lots of ways to print using Uni printers at minimal cost, and let them make up their own mind as to what they want. Let them make an informed choice.

I always had one. I used to buy an old inkjet (canon or HP) for a fiver on FB or eBay and keep using it until it broke or cartridge supply became a problem.

I used to print essays (in my day hard copies had to be handed in) on posh a4 paper in the hope of getting a better grade (this does not work).

I hate reading off a screen so used mine loads especially in third year and PG when I had to read the literature. I expect the overall cost per page works out about the same as printer credit especially if you are content to use non branded ink cartridges.

I used to print essays (in my day hard copies had to be handed in) on posh a4 paper in the hope of getting a better grade (this does not work).

Good tip.

The following also don't work:

Having a beautiful title page with pictures and tastefully (?) selected typefaces

Adding multiple appendices containing material of no relevance to the assignment

Including figures/tables that are never referred to in the text

Having a list of fifty references when you only cited 20 in the assignment

Beginning figure legends with things like "A graph showing..." or "A diagram showing..."; I can see it's a graph/diagram, thank you

What is he studying ? I studied chemistry, graduated 2016. We were assigned all our worksheets online for workshops and tutorials, but I used to print them out and hand write them (most of these didn't have to be submitted, but the ones that did I scanned in) because it takes about five times as long to do reaction mechanisms / chemical equations / maths notation on a computer as it does with a pen ! As far as I can recall most people did them on paper. So a basic inkjet printer with built in scanner (about £40 from Currys, and it looks like they're still a similar price) was really useful for me.

I work in science education now and still hate word-processing chemistry, so unless I'm missing something I don't think technology has improved enough to make pen and paper redundant.

Neither ds has a printer at university! They think I’m a dinosaur as I print everything🤣 They are probably right, I have files of printed emails at work🫣

Inkjets are a terrible choice if he really needs a printer. The ink costs an absolute bomb and the jets will get clogged and cartridges dry out if not used. Cheap black and white laser would be a little bit more expensive but cheaper in the long run.

Yep, My son is doing a Maths degree and far prefers paper and pen for the computations/workings etc. He has an ipad and stylus/pen but says the workings/calculations are just too long to do on one screen, so when he's tried, he's ended up flicking between screens which leads to mistakes etc. He can write smaller by pen and paper so can do more on the same page of paper than he'd be able to get on an ipad screen, and of course, you can have several pieces of paper visible in front of you which is better than flicking between single pages on an ipad or laptop screen.

So I think it does depend on the subject. If you're just making a few notes, then a stylus is fine, but when you're doing lengthy calculations, perhaps not!

I don't think most do. One of my did and the other didn't.

The one who did was studying a subject where most of the reading was from academic journals rather than books. She is dyslexic and finds it easier to understand complicated stuff when it's on paper than when it's on screen so her DSA paid for the printer.