Student life

Gate 86 of Stansted Airport was where my Sutton Trust journey started and now ends. One year ago, I was headed to the US as part of the Sutton Trust US Programme to experience life at a US university. Suitcase in tow and anxiety and excitement at an all time high, I travelled alongside other Scottish Sutton Trust participants.

Almost everyone will tell you to join a society when you go to university. It’s a great way to make friends and either learn a new hobby or continue with a current one. And while you could stick to the mainstream by joining a football or hockey team or getting involved in the theatre or hiking society, don’t be afraid to go a little off-piste. Draw inspiration from these unusual university societies, from the past and present to get you started. They will certainly be a talking point when you return home for the summer. 

Last month, at the tender age of 37, I graduated from Birmingham City University with an MA in online journalism. It may seem a strange concept to attend university later on in life (I’m using the term ‘attend’ loosely as I studied part-time via distance learning) but it’s more common than you might think. I know this because I work at the Open University and see at first hand the importance – and value – of studying at any stage in your life, often while spinning multiple plates.

Two-thirds of university students think that the maintenance loan is not enough to cover their living expenses, new research has found. 

The survey, carried out by student finance website Save the Student, surveyed 2,316 students about their financial situation and the effect that it had on their mental health. Some 66 per cent of the respondents felt that the maintenance loan left them struggling to get by and 50 per cent said that they had experienced mental health issues because of financial concerns. 

After my first term at the University of Oxford, I was invited back to my old sixth-form college in Norfolk to talk to students who were thinking about university applications. Norfolk has a historically low percentage of young people applying for higher education. Trying to convince them that they should try applying to Oxbridge was an uphill battle and I could see why – I had also been there.

My name is Raphaëlle Soffe, and I am a dual British and French citizen. I currently live in Ewloe, a small village in North Wales, and I went to high school in the neighbouring village of Hawarden. In just a few short weeks, I will be cramming four months’ worth of possessions into two suitcases and flying over to Boston to start at Harvard University. 

Like most students, I anticipated results day this year with nerves, dread and an endless reel of possible scenarios in my mind. No matter how well your exams go, there will always be that doubt that maybe they didn’t quite go to plan. 

These days, it couldn’t be easier to receive your results. All you need is wi-fi, a device and your login details. In many ways, this is fantastic, especially if you’ve studied abroad, but it also means that receiving your results is now more impersonal than ever. No human contact needed.

A study into UK student mental health – believed to be the largest of its kind – will be launched this autumn by higher education research specialist Alterline and will be supported by the National Union of Students (NUS).

Twelve university student unions, representing more than 185,000 students, will be taking part in the study to explore the prevalence and range of mental health issues among the student population. 

Our nephew’s graduation ceremony from University of Oregon’s (UO) business school was a master class on US higher education. UO is a public university in the smallish (150,000 population) town of Eugene set in the Willamette valley. It has an undergraduate population of a bit more than 26,000, nearly half of whom come from Oregon although some would like that number to be higher.

I teach a first year undergraduate sociology course at the University of Manchester in which students examine social scientific perspectives on major global challenges such as inequality, climate change, migration, radicalisation, ending poverty and corporate power.