Prepping ideas for university students please?

[HeyAunty]

I have 2 young people in university. They've been told nothing about preparing for emergencies. It's possible they will be looked after in case of a terrible winter.

However, if they weren't, what items including food, would you suggest they had in store? Especially if there is no power so can't cook?

Thanks!

Presumably they live in a city if they are at university? Much less likely to have power cuts, much more likely to have 24 hour shops. They don't need to do anything.

I've told mine to have 2 days of water and food in the house. And to make a plan for how to get home if they need to.

I am hoping they listen, and have at least the food and water that they need. And any medication, and an emergency first aid kit.

Ds has been bought tins of beans etc he would eat them cold. He needs a power bank for his phone and a lamp i guess. He is young, no dependents and resourceful so i dont worry too much. Although I do worry about having fuel to collect him if I really needed to.

As an engineer who looks closely at civil defense and household readiness, this is a really important gap. University halls are particularly vulnerable during prolonged power outages or severe winter weather because students rarely have excess storage space or secondary heating.
If power goes out and cooking isn't an option, here is a practical, budget-friendly baseline for student accommodation:
1. No-Cook / High-Calorie Food Reserves

• Ready-to-eat protein: Tinned tuna/salmon with pull-ring lids (no can opener needed), pre-cooked grain pouches (can be eaten cold), tinned baked beans or all-day breakfasts.
• Calorie-dense snacks: Peanut butter, mixed nuts, flapjacks, high-protein bars, and dried fruit.
• Instant calories: If they have a thermos, they can boil water before a storm hits, a good thermos will keep water hot enough for instant porridge or noodles 12+ hours later.

2. Warmth & Light (Crucial without power)

• Emergency blanket / Fleece blankets / Thermal sleeping bag: Much more efficient at retaining heat than standard hall duvets.
• Headtorch & USB Power Bank: A 20,000mAh power bank keeps a smartphone charged for 3–4 days. The headtorch keeps hands free.
• Warm layers: Thermal base layers, thick wool socks, and a beanie hat (heat loss while sleeping in a cold room is a major issue).

3. Water & Basic Hygiene

• Bottled water: At least 6–8 liters stored under a desk or bed (2 liters/day minimum for drinking and basic hygiene).
• Wet wipes & hand sanitizer: Saves water if supply or heating is disrupted.

4. Communication & Off-Grid Info

• Ensure they have emergency contacts written down on paper (in case phone batteries die).

You can buy go bags but building one yourself is best and think 72hrs ideally.

(Full disclosure: I built a free, non-commercial civil defense web app called GAIG.tech to help families, travelers and students track localized UK weather/utility warnings and keep emergency supply checklists cached directly on their phones offline. It’s completely free if they want a simple checklist to work off).
Hope this helps give them a realistic baseline without taking up their whole room!

Thank you very much. I certainly worry about the gaps in provision but the young people aren't always think of these!

No they don't, and its why I built the app to help those that embrace technology and want to use it to help. We are all glued to our phones but genuinely for all the wrong reasons IE doom scrolling,and the tool itself is so powerful if used for better reasons. The app is designed for early warning, advice, inventory tracking and works globally for travelling etc. and you can also add pins for you kids locations so you get notified if something happens near them too.

Tell your dc to go through their phone settings and turn off Background App Refresh. Spotify, tinder, WhatsApp, email, all those. By shutting down those apps ability to do their own thing, the phone battery will last a lot longer.

Something that works well for students is a shoebox kit under the bed. It holds a head torch, a power bank they actually keep charged, a few litres of water, no-cook food they'd really eat, any regular medication and your number written on paper. Also worth agreeing now how they'd get home, or who they'd stay with, if the trains stop.

Sent mine with an emergency box.
Lamp, batteries, screw drivers, bike tools, puncture repair kit, over the counter medication and first aid, cash and change, duct tape, strong glue, power bank.

Food wise. He's got so little storage space for anything. He's got whatever he's bought.