If you're like most students on a tight budget, then buy a film camera from the 1980s. Nowadays, with ebay etc, these are really pretty cheap. Here's my suggestion

Pentax MX - small, light, almost bulletproof semi-pro camera from the 1980s. Fully manual, will work without a battery (but need small batteries for the inbuilt meter). The Pentax K lenses are plentiful and cheap to buy secondhand (cheaper by and large than Nikon or Canon). Apart from the Olympus OM cameras, they're the smallest and lightest ones around; as it's small, you won't mind carrying it. Buy it with a 50/1.7 standard lens and you'll probably find one for about Ł60. The ME Super is also good, but partly electronic (in older caneras, it's often the electronics that fail)

Alternatively
Canon A-1
Nikon FM

Charlie