Unprecedented accommodation guarantees, higher vacancy rates and lower rental prices are cold comfort for low-income university students heading for Canberra this year.

Welfare and student associations say many will live on a diet of two-minute noodles and sleep in cars or inshifts in single rooms shared with mates.

Students are finding it tough to find somewhere to live. Credit:Richard Briggs

The University of Canberra has increased student accommodation by 60 per cent over the last five years.

Next week it opens the eight-storey Cooper Lodge with 416 beds, taking the total to 2400 beds.