As an English student, I have only four hours a week of compulsory human contact at my university. I was spending a lot of time alone in my room. So I bought a kitten.

I found him by typing "kittens in Fife" into a search engine. I planned to bring him back on the bus in a cardboard box, but he escaped 20 minutes into the journey. Then I tried, unsuccessfully, to put him in my rucksack (is this cruel?) but ended up walking home clutching him.

After a glorious honeymoon period, a flatmate's cat allergy was to separate me from my new best friend. A tense phone conversation with my family took place: I heard my dad whisper "I don't think she is joking" to my mum. I bought a proper cat basket and we embarked on the seven-hour train ride home.

Loneliness at university is more common than you might think. Frankie, a third-year physiotherapy student, says she felt isolated at first: "I lived in a house with eight other girls, but our different timetables meant it was fairly common to see no one in the house for days."

I left school expecting to be surrounded by a hubbub of intellectual debate at university, preferably while standing barefoot on a police car. I did get handed a leaflet saying "We are the 1% – come and celebrate" during the Occupy protest.

But most of university is obsessed with "independent learning". I usually do this is solitary confinement, so I don't accidentally plagiarise someone's hairstyle.

In contrast, my teenage sister goes to school from 8:30 until 15:45, during which time she talks (almost continuously) to her friends.

My parents work in offices where team work and friendship are hugely important. They come home saying: "You'll never guess what Charlie did." Charlie has almost always shown them a lolcat we all saw last July.

I went to all the organised freshers' social events, but the most interesting fact I could ever think of about myself was that my favourite episode of Dirty Jobs is about the artificial insemination of turkeys. It is really difficult to make new people like you when you've just told them how to impregnate a turkey.

Eventually, even I found wonderful friends that stuck.

The director of representation at St Andrews University, Amanda Litherland, advises: "Although you might think that everyone else is out having fun, they're probably doing exactly the same thing as you – sitting under a blanket refreshing Facebook and hoping someone will invite them out for a pint. So ask them first!"

Here are some more things you can do (other than purchasing livestock) if you feel lonely:

Age UK provides a befriending service to older people living alone. You can volunteer to take part, by visiting someone at home or speaking to them over the phone.

Nightline is a listening and information service for you to call, or (if you're feeling brave) get involved with, at your university. At Birmingham University's Nightline, in the last academic year, loneliness was the most frequent call topic (out of 26 categories).

And of course there are a wealth of clubs and societies at every university. Try to think of something interesting to say about yourself before you get there.

Lots of people feel lonely at university. Before you invest in an animal that lives for 15 years, try going for coffee with a friend.