Student life

So you’re thinking about attending university. You’ve been to the open days, written your personal statement and taken a stiff drink to numb the pain of those impending student debts. However, the one thing no-one has told you about is what your day-to-day life may be like. Allow me to rectify that as I share a day in the life of a UK university student.

Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual - The bigger the choice, the harder it is to choose

My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years.

International students in the United States tend to concentrate in three states: New York, California and Texas.

So the results of the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2015 report, revealing the 25 US universities with the most international students, are not particularly surprising.

New York, California and Texas each claim three universities in the top 25, as does Pennsylvania.

What makes one university better than another?

More often than not, the answer from students, academics and other higher education professionals has been some quality test of university teaching or research.

But the Social Mobility Index aims to shift the focus to access and outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In-depth knowledge is the most important quality of a university teacher, according to research into student perspectives on teaching quality.

For one in five students, the qualifications of university lecturers would affect their decision about where to study.

The research, by The Student Room, indicates what students value about teaching quality ahead of the UK government’s plans for a teaching excellence framework, which will use student opinions to create metrics on which to evaluate university teaching.

Students are getting serious about climate change issues and have added their voices to an open letter delivered last night to a French diplomat ahead of the United Nations climate change conference.

The letter, signed by major higher education and student networks, urges ministers, negotiators and governments to support research and education that will play a role in finding climate change solutions.

It was handed to Pierre-Henri Guignard – the general secretary for the UN’s COP21 conference, which will take place in Paris in December.

Many of the best universities in the world remained off-limits for women until the last century.

Nonetheless, 46 women have won Nobel prizes since then, and women are now running some of the most prestigious institutions, including Imperial College London.

Despite regrettably low numbers of women studying science, engineering and other subjects, many universities are well on their way to achieving parity in the numbers of male and female students.

University courses are traditionally accused of favouring “male, stale and pale” in the texts they choose. But radical changes in the past few decades mean that universities are now spaces where diversity is celebrated – even if it still remains more difficult for black and ethnic minority students to get into top universities.

Northern Ireland’s capital, home to Ulster University’s Belfast campus, boasts a buzzing nightlife and high-quality attractions such as Titanic Belfast, while its low rental prices make it the cheapest city in which to study in the UK.

The average rent in Belfast is £46 a week, compared with £105 in London and £112 in Oxford, while grocery shopping is cheapest there, too – the average spend is £16.13 in the city, compared with a whopping £29.35 in Dundee.

In June 2015, Aaron Chapman travelled from his home in the UK to Japan, hoping to study for a master’s degree there the next academic year. His motivation was almost entirely selfless; he felt a duty to become a cultural ambassador.

“I feel like it is my mission to ensure that a good level of understanding happens between countries,” he says.