I have HSBC, Natwest and Lloyds bank.
Well if you get into UK universities that is in a major city, eg: birmingham, you'll only get a Step account from Natwest (which is quite useless)
I have friends who are studying in Uni of Leeds and Uni of Glasgow. They manage to get Student Account from Natwest. Try to ask natwest first if they offer Student acc to you or not because Student Accoun is only applicable to LOCAL students. If you get a student account, you'll get a 5 years young person railcard. That's cool man!
If natwest offers you a normal Step account, you can try lloyds (which I did) and I luv Lloyds. 1) high interest, cheque book, visa debit card, visa credit card, internet banking.

I'm not sure if you're interested with HSBC but HSBC sucks!!!! I hate that!! But I know some think HSBC is good. Depends on which branch I guess. The branch in my university sucks!! lousy service!!!

For toiletries (is this the correct spelling  ), head to The Moor (yes.. again..!!). Look for Body Care (or something like that) . Cheap stuff over there. Or maybe you could buy from Boots too. Boots is something like Watson or Guardian in Malaysia. Therefore, please bring minimal toiletries by all means. They take up space as well as weight.

yeah, to get a permanent job in UK for international student is not easy, even for placement. you will need skills that they required. If you graduated and would like to get a permanent job, you have to go through a lot of procedure. When the company agree hire you, they need to advise the vacancy to public for 1 month. If there's no local people apply then only they can hire you and apply work permit for you. But for placement, it's no that troublesome. It's only company in UK prefer hire local people.
I must admit working in UK is a very good experience, their working style is totally different in Malaysia. Quite relaxing.
So what I suggest is, if you have the plan for work in UK, try for those course have placement or sandwich year. This will be more easier to get permanent job when you have graduate
If you only need an account for pay in tesco or others, then you can try Natwest's step account. Only that it can't use to buy things in the internet. If you need to saving, then you can try Natwest's e-saving, it has quite high interest.
But if you don't mind paying £5 per month, then you can use HSBC. It will have less hassle, you can straight away use it for all bills. It's all depends on you, if you pay, then you won't have 'ma fan'... For me,    £5 per month, that cost me £60 per year and I can use this £60 for a lot of things... 

After studying here for almost 2 years now, get to read lots of information about employment and opening a bank account!!

I admit I'm kiasu haha.. but I pay so much 10k pounds to study here! Of course I have to use everything to the max!! Alright, here are some answers to your questions!!
First reserve is a saving account but it doesn't give you any 5 year railcard or etc. Furthermore, first reserve's interest is damn low!!! You should get their online saving account which is higher interest! haha again, kiasu.. cause last time lloyds has higher interest in their online saving account, i transferred all my money there. Now natwst has higher interest, i moved everything to natwest! haha...

I'll be here for 3rd year, I'll definitely get the 5 years railcard!!! I MUZ GET IT.. It's so silly that these banks distinguish us and the local students. Local students get student account but we DON'T!! We can, if we put loads of money in our account. I already asked Natwest and they told me you gotta have at least £5000 in your account - after paying all your tuition fees in order to qualify for a student account or whatever you call blue step account that gives u a 5 years railcard free and also chequebook and overdraft service.
IGS is similar to SEGS but IGS opens to all international students who complete their bachelor degree in UK with at least 2:2 to stay in the UK to search for a job.

NOTE: You're legally to work in the UK as part-time when you're studying and full time during vacation period BUT you're not allowed to take up any PERMANENT jobs in UK. This IGS allows you to stay in the UK after graduation for one year to search for a permanent job! In the meantime of course you're able to work part time in any job. You should consider very lucky if you get a Permanent job in the UK!! - this means there are companies who willing to sponsor a work permit for you.
NO! Only available for students who completed their degree in the UK for 6 months or more.
HAHa.. there isn't any RBS in my uni. Natwest, Barclays and Lloyds are in the heart of my uni while HSbC is my uni's student union. Dun need to go to city or anywhere for banking.. ADvantage of campus uni!! hehehe

After studying here for almost 2 years now, get to read lots of information about employment and opening a bank account!!

I admit I'm kiasu haha.. but I pay so much 10k pounds to study here! Of course I have to use everything to the max!! Alright, here are some answers to your questions!!
First reserve is a saving account but it doesn't give you any 5 year railcard or etc. Furthermore, first reserve's interest is damn low!!! You should get their online saving account which is higher interest! haha again, kiasu.. cause last time lloyds has higher interest in their online saving account, i transferred all my money there. Now natwst has higher interest, i moved everything to natwest! haha...

I'll be here for 3rd year, I'll definitely get the 5 years railcard!!! I MUZ GET IT.. It's so silly that these banks distinguish us and the local students. Local students get student account but we DON'T!! We can, if we put loads of money in our account. I already asked Natwest and they told me you gotta have at least £5000 in your account - after paying all your tuition fees in order to qualify for a student account or whatever you call blue step account that gives u a 5 years railcard free and also chequebook and overdraft service.
IGS is similar to SEGS but IGS opens to all international students who complete their bachelor degree in UK with at least 2:2 to stay in the UK to search for a job.

NOTE: You're legally to work in the UK as part-time when you're studying and full time during vacation period BUT you're not allowed to take up any PERMANENT jobs in UK. This IGS allows you to stay in the UK after graduation for one year to search for a permanent job! In the meantime of course you're able to work part time in any job. You should consider very lucky if you get a Permanent job in the UK!! - this means there are companies who willing to sponsor a work permit for you.
NO! Only available for students who completed their degree in the UK for 6 months or more.
HAHa.. there isn't any RBS in my uni. Natwest, Barclays and Lloyds are in the heart of my uni while HSbC is my uni's student union. Dun need to go to city or anywhere for banking.. ADvantage of campus uni!! hehehe

Erm, to buy things or places couldn't use the SOLO card, I will use credit card. For example, you go to the train station to buy advance ticket, natwest's solo card cannot be used. So I used credit card for it. Anyway I seldom buy things from Internet..   and my credit card used for buy train tickets.. hehe..
I heard from my one of my friend, Natwest e-saving interest consider has the highest interest among all bank in UK, except ISA account (ISA account need NI number to open). The interest is about 4.89% (erm, if i'm wrong I sorry coz i don't really know about these interest thing, i opened it coz my friend said it is the highest interest so i just open it.. hehe.. I'm a loser I must admit).. But you check the webside E-Saving
erm, should be when you put £400++, then you should get £2++ every months...

erm, if i'm not mistaken, when your pay is not more than GPB5K per year, then your salary will not be taxed. But you can try those chinese take-away (if you are chinese), there are some is tax-free.. you can earn quite a lot if you work in take-away...