Amelia Welch was partying with friends in Plymouth on Friday when she lost her hand, which cost about 3,000 pounds.
The Plymouth University marine biology student said she only realised the cosmetic prosthetic was missing the following morning.
She thinks she could have left it in a nightclub and forgot to pick it up.
A spokesperson from the Oceana nightclub club confirmed someone had returned it to her, the BBC reported.
Amelia, who was born with a congenital malformation in her right hand, said she had gone to the nightclub after a university ball.
More From This Section
"I do take it off to go to the toilet, but most of the time when I go out I put it on because it gives me confidence," she said.
"I must have been drunk when I took it off and forgot about it.
"I went back to halls with friends and went to bed and the next day I realised that I did not have it."
It is the first prosthetic she has had and fits on her hand "like a glove" she said.
"Someone might have picked it up and not realised what it was," she said.
"It's worth everything to me, but nothing to anyone else," she had said.