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For many international students arriving in the UK, university marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter. But alongside tuition, rent, food and transport are less visible challenges: finding people to connect with, discovering opportunities, making extra income and navigating life in a new country.

Vacua Students was created with some of these everyday realities in mind.

The UK-based platform brings together student communities, a peer-to-peer marketplace and opportunities for students to offer services to one another, with the aim of making student life more connected and practical.

At the centre of the idea is a simple proposition: students are not only consumers of services. They also have skills, knowledge, belongings and time that other students may need.

Vacua allows students to join communities around shared interests, connect with other students, exchange experiences and discover opportunities beyond the classroom.

For international students, building those connections can be particularly important. Moving to a new country can mean arriving with little or no existing social network.

The platform also allows students to offer services to others. Someone who knows how to braid or cut hair could provide those services to fellow students, while another student could offer tutoring, cleaning, moving assistance or campus tours.

A student with knowledge of their university and city could help newcomers understand their surroundings, while those with skills in areas such as photography, graphic design, coding or cooking could potentially turn them into additional income.

The opportunities would, however, remain subject to the immigration and work conditions applicable to each student’s visa status.

The idea is to create a peer-to-peer environment in which students can both access services and provide them.

The platform also includes a marketplace where students can buy, sell and exchange items.

Laptops, desks, chairs, kitchen equipment, televisions, bicycles and clothing are among the belongings students may no longer need when they graduate or move accommodation.

Vacua founder, Dr Yusuff Awosanya, says he experienced this problem himself. When leaving accommodation, he struggled to find buyers for some of his belongings and eventually had to pay to dispose of some items.

The experience raised a question for him: why should one student have to pay to dispose of something another student might need?
Through the marketplace, a graduating student can potentially sell an item directly to another student, while someone arriving for their first year in the UK can access second-hand goods at a lower cost.

Students have long relied on Facebook groups and other social media platforms to buy and sell belongings, find services and connect with one another.

But those platforms can make it difficult to know who is behind a profile or whether a seller or service provider is genuine.

UK authorities have also warned about scams targeting students online. In 2025, the UK Government reported that 57% of students surveyed had encountered fraud or had money stolen by criminals. The Student Loans Company has separately warned about scammers using social posts and direct messages to obtain money and personal information.

Verification is therefore a significant part of Vacua’s proposition.

The platform places emphasis on verifying students using its communities and marketplace, with the objective of giving members greater confidence about who they are interacting with.

It does not claim to eliminate every risk associated with online transactions, but instead seeks to make verification part of the student experience.

For Awosanya, the idea behind Vacua developed from his own experiences and years of working with students.

While studying at the University of Bolton, he served as a student ambassador and Vice President of the Postgraduate Society, representing postgraduate students. He was also involved with the university’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee.

Those experiences exposed him to challenges facing international students and showed him that many of the difficulties he had encountered were shared by others.

His work through Daytopia Mentoring Network, which supports students with academic, career and personal development, further shaped his understanding of the student journey.

Vacua brings those experiences into a technology platform that seeks to connect students not only with what they need, but with what they can offer.

A student can sell something they no longer need, provide a service, help someone new to the university or find support from others facing similar experiences.

As Vacua develops, its broader ambition is to become part of everyday student life — a place where students can connect, buy, sell, earn, share and support one another.

Because university life is not only about what students learn in the classroom. It can also be about what they build together.

Visit Vacua here: