THIS week is Freshers’ Week, a rite of passage for young people starting out on student life.

This is the week when halls of residence are bustling with activity as a new batch of undergraduates move in. Bags and cases are being unpacked, posters and photographs are being stuck to walls, and what may turn out to be lifelong friendships are being formed over cups of tea.

These days students arrive at university armed with an array of gadgets that would have been unheard a couple of decades ago. There was a time when a kettle and a radio/cassette player were the only electrical items to be found in student digs - and maybe a black and white portable TV that an entire floor of people would crowd around - but the digital age has created way more baggage for today’s crop of university dwellers.

Some things remain unchanged though. Today’s contemporary halls of residence may be more comfortable and even stylish than the rather basic structures of the 1960s, 70s and 80s but the student rituals of leafing through textbooks and poring over notes in the library, chilling out in communal areas and putting the world to right over pints of cheap beer in the Students’ Union bar remain the same.

In the 1980s, when students marched against South Africa’s apartheid regime, it was the trend for university and polytechnic campus bars to be named after freedom fighters Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko. The University of Bradford named its bar after Biko, and in our picture a group of Eighties students look to be locked in a lively debate.

Student accommodation has always been pretty basic, and your own wash basin was considered a luxury. This student, pictured in 1977, appears to be finding her feet in the room that is to be her home for the next year. All she needs is a few film and anti-war posters and it will start to look like every other student room in her block...

Our other student room picture was taken nearly half a century ago, in 1967, but could have been taken this week. The desk, bed and soft furnishings are pretty much staple to student accommodation even today - although this student would have a laptop and an omnipresent smartphone if she was embarking on university life in 2016.

Our pictures of Bradford University’s library were taken in 1967 and 1972, when it would have looked modern, with a cutting-edge design, a world away from the stuffy libraries of older universities.

Many halls of residence have communal dining areas, affectionately referred to as the “refec”. In some universities dinner is a formal affair and it’s obligatory for students to wear the cap and gown to dine.

Our picture of Bradford University’s dining area was taken in 1983, when the decor would have looked pretty modern.

Sport has always been a big part of university life, and our picture of Bradford University's sports field was taken in 1967. Anyone remember playing in a student team back then?