The best policy for student insurance

The average student now lugs more than £2,000-worth of laptops, smartphones and bicycles to university but they are nearly three times more likely to be a victim of a burglary than a conventional family household. So what should they do about buying insurance?
Broadly, there are two options: get cover via their parents' existing home contents policy, or buy their own specialist student policy.
Using their parents' home policy is the cheapest (often completely free) option. But some parents will understandably be cautious, as a theft will wreck their no-claims discount.

If they have a standard policy with the UK's largest insurer Aviva, provided the student still lives at the family home in the holidays, they automatically have £5,000-worth of cover for belongings kept during term time in student accommodation, be it a shared student house or halls on campus.
This will protect goods – including laptops, mobile phones and other gadgets – for all standard perils such as fire, storm, flood or malicious damage. Theft is also covered, but only if someone physically breaks into the accommodation. So there's no cover if, for example, you hold a party during which your laptop goes missing. The policy also covers, as standard, bikes stolen from inside your student home or a locked garage or shed.