About Our Student Life Guides
The internet is full of advice about university. Most of it is either trying to sell you something, written by people who left university decades ago, or so relentlessly upbeat it doesn’t match what student life actually feels like. We made these guides to be the honest version — practical, judgement-free, and grounded in what students really go through.
Who we are
anonfess runs one of the UK’s busier anonymous student confession communities. Every day, students tell us — anonymously — what’s really going on: the parts of university that are brilliant, and the parts nobody warns you about. The loneliness behind the freshers photos, the money worries, the exam panic, the friendships that drift, the bits people don’t post on Instagram.
That puts us in an unusual position. We’re not a university, a charity, or a careers company with a product to push. We’re the place students already come to say the things they can’t say out loud — which means we hear the unfiltered reality of student life, at scale, all the time. These guides are our attempt to turn that into something genuinely useful.
Where these guides come from
The thing that makes our guides different is the same thing that makes anonfess what it is: real, anonymous student voices. Throughout these guides you’ll find honest submissions from actual students — not invented quotes or polished testimonials, but the real, anonymous experiences people have shared with us. That’s the part you won’t find on the official advice sites, and it’s the heart of what we do.
We keep those voices anonymous, always. That’s the whole point of anonfess: students can be honest precisely because no one knows who they are. The same principle runs through these guides.
How we write them
We take the accuracy of these guides seriously, because a lot of them cover things that genuinely matter — your money, your health, your wellbeing, your future. So:
- We cite our sources, so you don’t have to take our word for it. Where we state a fact or a figure, we check it against authoritative sources — the NHS, UCAS, official government guidance, universities and established student organisations — and we link to them, so you can verify anything for yourself in a click.
- We keep things current, and flag what changes. Rules and figures — student finance, fees, services — change, so we revisit our guides and, where a number can move, we tell you to check the latest for your own situation rather than relying on one that may be out of date.
- We’re honest about uncertainty. Where something varies between universities, or across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we say so and point you to check your own case, rather than pretending there’s one answer.
- We fix what we get wrong. We’re a small team, not a newsroom — so if you spot a mistake, tell us and we’ll correct it.
What these guides are — and aren’t
These guides are honest, practical information from people who are close to student life. They are not professional advice. We’re not doctors, financial advisers, lawyers or counsellors, and we don’t pretend to be.
So on anything that really matters, we do two things: we tell you what we genuinely know, and we point you to the people who can help properly — your GP and the NHS, your university’s wellbeing, counselling and academic services, your students’ union advice service, and trusted national organisations and helplines. If you take one thing from any of our health or money guides, let it be where to get real support — and that you don’t have to wait until things are serious to ask for it.
Tell us if we get something wrong
We’d rather be corrected than be wrong. If you spot a mistake, something out of date, or advice that doesn’t match your experience, tell us — we read it, and we fix things. And if you’ve got a confession of your own to share, anonymously, that’s what we’re here for.
For the full set of guides, head to the Student Life hub.