Universities are pleading for more private landlords to offer their homes to rent as numbers of homeless students queue up for digs.
Renting black spots include London, Crewe, Aberystwyth and Carlisle, while Edge Hill University is sending students to check out a holiday camp as beds have run out.
Huge numbers of students are looking for university degree places through clearing after receiving their GCSE results and many universities and colleges are struggling to cope with housing them.
Letting agents in Crewe are concerned some students will not start their courses because no accommodation is available at Crewe’s Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) campus.
The university struggled to house students last year - and seems to be facing the same problems again.
MMU had 8,480 places available this year but picked up a 15 per cent increase in applications - more than 55,000 compared with 47,500 last year.
“Demand is so great that many students will be homeless unless more landlords come forward to offer accommodation,” said Shaun Cafferty of Martin & Co.
“We have seen a huge demand from Reaseheath College students in Nantwich as well as from those hoping to study at MMU.”
The University of Cumbria is pleading for private landlords to come forward for to house students in Penrith and Carlisle. Halls of residence in Carlisle are already full.
Universities and colleges across London are experiencing a chronic shortage of accommodation under an onslaught of student applications from the UK and overseas. The capital expects to host around a million students with halls accommodation for around 40,000.
Aberystwyth University has written to to European students asking them to wait until September 2012 to start their courses because of an accommodation shortage.
Around 50 first-year students lived in bed-and-breakfasts for some time two years ago because of stress on housing.
Aberystwyth Guild of Students president Ben Meakin said: "This is particularly concerning as accommodation has been raised as an issue over the last few years. I sincerely hope this is the last time the university admits more students than it can accommodate.
"We do not believe that EU students should be used as scapegoats for the university's failure to plan effectively for admissions."
