There’s no end to the complaints about GCSEs and A Levels these days, and the debate about whether or not A Levels adequately prepare students for the rigours of studying for a degree is continuing ferociously.

I recently read an article by The Sunday Times’ Sian Griffiths ,which detailed how many universities have to offer undergraduates remedial classes to fill in gaps in their knowledge before they can really delve into degree-level study. According to data published in Griffiths’ article, in a survey of 633 lecturers, two thirds said that their universities offered extra tuition, and 75% had to adapt their teaching style ‘to accommodate floundering first years’.

Even students who have achieved a string of top-grade A Levels need booster classes when they reach university. Oxford and Cambridge both only admit students with superb academic track records, and yet they also have to offer ‘catch-up classes’. Professor Helen Watanbe-O’Kelly, chairwoman of the modern languages faculty at Oxford told the Sunday Times how disappointing the GCSE and A Level languages syllabi are, because they offer so little grammar. To compensate for this, ‘everyone except native-language speakers gets one hour a week of grammar classes; the lowest stream gets two hours a week. In the past they would arrive at university with this knowledge.’

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, told a House of Lords select committee: ‘This is one of the issues where you might think that a university such as Cambridge would be exempt from the problem, but we are not… In our fairly heavy mathematically orientated physics courses we are having to embark on remedial teaching in mathematics.’

The obvious solution to the problem is to make A Levels more challenging, really boost the quality of secondary-school teaching and for there to be a greater level of ‘joined-up-thinking’ when it comes to structuring A Level courses and their relation to BA degrees. With the current curriculum review underway, here’s hoping that the above will happen, as it would be a great shame indeed if universities had to pump more energy and resources into ‘patching up’ students’ knowledge than advancing and expanding their understanding and thinking.

My freshers’ week feels like aeons ago and it hovers in my memory as a blur of trying to remember people’s names, filling in forms, getting to grips with all sorts of college jargon and attending a whole host of fancy dress parties and events. I don’t think we even had a full week as we arrived on a Sunday and lectures began on Thursdays but it was probably a good thing, as there’s only so much ‘organised fun’ one can handle, or maybe that was just me. Students at Bristol University were outraged when plans to shorten freshers’ week were suggested, so for some people there really is a healthy desire for as many themed events as possible.

Bristol Union’s vice-president for education, Josh Alford was quoted in an article by Miles Coleman for the Guardian defending freshers’ week with the statement, “is a vital time for students to settle into a new environment, make new friends, get to know a new city and generally acclimatise to a whole new environment, one which many have not experienced before.” I agree that these are all important parts of freshers’ week, but equally no body is expected to fully do all of these things in just five days. The process of getting used to a new city and settling in takes longer than a week, surely?

Coleman argued that, freshers’ week is completely different to the rest of university life: ‘Ask any student and they will tell you that freshers’ is the only time when everybody talks to everybody, without any social hang-ups or pretensions. There is definitely something that changes once it is over. Cliques begin to form. The very large rugby boys all end up together endlessly discussing the complexities of protein powder. Girls studying English flock together in a sea of berets and roll-up cigarettes.’ I have to disagree here; it is absolutely not the case that for five blissful days everyone talks to everyone and then on the 6th day the social groups ossify forever. There will always be people who only feel comfortable talking to people that they have lots in common with and so form certain cliques early on, but university also exposes you to people from different parts of the country and backgrounds and many people will make new friends who are very unlike their old school groups back at home. It also takes times to find people you really connect with at university, and although I am still friends with people I met in my first week, many of my best friends from university are people I met in my second and third years.

One of the reasons Bristol University wanted to curb freshers’ week is due to concerns about the amount of alcohol that is consumed before term starts. But with nervous students in awkward social situations, often at least a pint of beer is going to be reached for. Moreover, it’s hardly like the drinking stops as soon as lectures begin, and I can’t imagine seeing an alcohol-free freshers’ week appearing at a university near you anytime soon. Although I think that it is important for organisers to plan events where the sole purpose is not to get completely sozzled with alcohol.

What are your thoughts on freshers’ week? Should Bristol have ignored the students’ petition and cut it short, or should universities preserve it in its current form?

A few weeks ago I wrote about the huge increase in British sixth formers applying to study at American universities, where there are many fantastic universities offering students excellent value for money with their amazing facilities, high teaching standards and numerous scholarships on offer. With the recent changes to tuition fees, British students are reconsidering whether studying in the UK is the best option, and thousands are looking further afield for inviting degree courses.

Last week ambassadors from a number of Dutch universities visited schools and colleges around the UK in order to try and recruit applicants. Many higher education institutions in the Netherlands teach courses exclusively in English, and the fees are considerably lower than at British universities, with the price tag of a Dutch degree hovering at around £1500 a year. A three year course will thus cost you the same as 6 months at many British universities.

Spokesmen and women travelled from Tilburg University, Utrecht University, Maastricht University, the Roosevelt Academy and Leiden University, and gave presentations at a number of schools, telling pupils about life and culture in the Netherlands and what the universities can offer.

Engineering, architecture and design are particularly strong subjects in Dutch universities and there are lots of really lovely Dutch towns where you can have a high quality of life as well. It also isn’t that hard or expensive at all to go to Holland, so even though a plane ticket is probably more expensive than a train ticket home from a British university, with the much cheaper tuition fees, you’ll probably still be saving a lot of money.

Are you studying or considering studying at a Dutch university? If so, let us know, we’d love to hear from you. And remember, wherever you’re applying to study, if you want advice you can always give Enjoy Education a ring!

It’s still too early to be able to see what the impact of the raise in tuition fees for universities in the UK is and will be, however there are already some signs that there are major shifts in where British school leavers are choosing to go to continue their educations.

I recently read an article by the BBC’s Sean Coughlan, in which he reported that Dr Anthony Seldon, head of the highly prestigious Wellington College in Berkshire, has predicted that within four years a quarter of sixth formers from UK independent schools will be choosing to study at American universities. Dr Seldon is convinced that savvy students will be looking further afield to find high quality further education at a more reasonable price.

The Fulbright Commission, which promotes relationships in education between America and the UK, has been overwhelmed by a sharp rise in the number of pupils attending their recruitment fairs. And it is estimated that there’s been a 30% increase in applications to American universities from British teenagers this year.

There are many extremely highly regarded American universities such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton and Berkeley. Many American institutions are very well funded and so have a lot to offer students. It’s also relatively easy for English students to apply as they can sit the necessary SAT tests at home.

Although the fees at American universities can be considerably higher than here in the UK, there’s a great deal more financial support on offer. For example at Harvard, pupils whose parents earn less than £41,000 a year will not have to pay any fees at all. At other institutions, students who are academically very strong receiving scholarships to a university often have to pay between £6,500 and £8,000 (instead of the full fees of around £30,000 a year). Here in the UK you will now find it difficult to get a better deal on fees, with many institutions charging around £9000 a year for tuition.

But students in search of better deals on high quality education aren’t just going to the US. Many universities in Europe (particularly German and Holland) teach courses in English and charge very low fees (around the £1500 mark per annum, if that), making them very attractive to British school leavers.

Are you a British student at or applying to an American university? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Our fantastic capital city is going to be in the spotlight more than ever this year with the Olympics in the summer and the many events celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. And now London has another reason to be proud this year: we’ve been ranked second in a poll of the best cities for students. London just missed out on the top spot and was narrowly beaten by Paris, but I reckon 2nd is a pretty great achievement. According to Ben Sowter – the lead researcher on the study – London has more world class universities than Paris, but came second because the city is more expensive.

We’re really lucky to have so many fantastic schools in London, many of which come consistently really high up on national league tables, and we also have a number of superb universities such as UCL, King’s, Imperial and Birkbeck. But studying at these institutions can come with a very hefty price tag, particularly for overseas students. International students often have to pay around £20,000 a year to study at universities here, whereas fees in Paris are around the £1000 a year mark.

As well as looking at the quality of the universities and teaching, the researchers looked at student lifestyles and the variety of students. Unfortunately, as well as having expensive fees, London is also a costly city to live in. Liam Burns, who is the current president of the National Union of Students, told the BBC about his concerns regarding the finances of students in London: “If London is to continue to be such an attractive place to study we need to see urgent action to address the spiralling cost of student living. It poses a real threat to the affordability of studying in the capital and therefore to the future sustainability of this world renowned status.”

The study only looked at cities with a population of 250,000 or more, so many university towns were not included in the research. However, there were other UK cities that did well in the rankings with Manchester coming 35th, Birmingham 47th and Glasgow 50th.
The list of the top ten cities for students was:
1. Paris
2. London
3. Boston
4. Melbourne
5. Vienna
6. Sydney
7. Zurich
8. Berlin
9. Dublin
10. Montreal

Top accounting firm, Ernst & Young recently published a survey of over 1000 university students’ employability skills and the results are fascinating. According to the study, students today are excellent at making friends, cracking jokes, and taking pride in their work, but poor at managing their time and taking risks. Students are also not good at recovering from set-backs, which made me think about Wimbledon High Schools’ ‘failure week’, in which teachers are encouraging students to learn from their mistakes and not be defeated when things don’t always go to plan. Perhaps Wimbledon’s classes in failure should be implemented in more schools and universities in order to remedy our problem with graduates who are not resilient enough.

Despite not being as resilient as employers would like, and faced with a very competitive jobs market, 87% of the students involved in the study said they felt confident about their career prospects, so it is good to see that people are optimistic even in these difficult times.

Stephen Isherwood, who is head of graduate recruitment at Ernst & Young, said in article by personnel.com, “Although it’s encouraging to see that students remain positive, in a climate of rising unemployment and fierce competition there’s absolutely no room for complacency. To get that first step on the career ladder, students need to be building their CVs with experiences that will help to develop their skills. This process needs to start at secondary school, rather than the last year of university.” He also warned “A good degree from a respected university no longer guarantees students a job. We interview more than 3,000 bright graduates every year, but only about 25% have the all-round skill set that we recruit for. Relationship development and problem solving are key attributes that we look for in our trainees. But the candidates who end up with job offers also demonstrate determination and resilience, and are able to work hard and thrive in difficult situations. We need to know that they are going to be able to cope if they are sent half way across the world to work on a client project.”
Ernst & Young and the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology have offered these ten excellent tips to graduate job seekers:
1. Take some risks and make mistakes – employers are happy to hear about when things go wrong, as long as you have learnt lessons.
2. Do something that makes a difference – don’t just focus on your studies. Employers want to see that you’ve used your drive and initiative to do more than the average.
3. Shout about your part-time jobs – if you work on a checkout you are delivering client service, in a business and working in a team
4. Develop your commercial awareness – if you want to work for a commercial organisation you need to show you are interested in business.
5. Study hard – your academic results demonstrate your intelligence, work ethic and ability to solve problems.
6. Find out what you are good at – different jobs require different strengths and you will be much more motivated and successful if you are playing to your strengths.
7. Learn to work to deadlines – we don’t live in a perfect world and you will have to deal with time, budget and resource constraints effectively.
8. Develop people skills – rarely does anyone work in a silo, you need to show you can work well with others and deliver results collaboratively.
9. Be positive – organisations want people who can deal with setbacks and overcome challenges.
10. Become self-aware – if you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, your likes and dislikes, you can grow and develop effectively.

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a very successful businesswoman just before I started my first term at university; she was talking about hiring new employees and said that the initial thing she does is discard all of the CVs from people who had got a First at university. Her reason was that she knew how ambitious, ruthless and single-minded you have to be in order to get a really high degree and that she would rather employ people with a wider range of interests, who had excellent social and communication skills and who wouldn’t be ‘desperately after [her] own job’. Although our chat took place quite a few years ago now, I’ll never forget it and I was intrigued to read an article by Graham Snowdon in the Guardian last week about degree classes and employability. Clearly my acquaintance is not the only person who favours a 2:1…

At the Graduate AnswerTime event in London recently employers were discussing whether or not a 2:1 is more likely to get you a job than a First or Third will. Three quarters of large graduate employers admitted that they often sift out applicants with degrees classed either above or below a 2:1, with those attaining the top of the second-class tier as their ideal candidates. And yet, many employers also state that they have little faith in the current classification system.

In these difficult economic times the graduate jobs market is a crowded place indeed and in 2011, there were on average 83 applicants for every graduate place. Employers have had to work out ways to sift through applications and the most popular way is to hunt down who has a 2:1 and then move onto the interview stage of the process.

However, a 2:1 alone will not guarantee you a job and more and more employers are looking for candidates with a good track record of work experience. Of course graduates with a First, 2:2 or Third should not despair, but rather use the information to work out what you can do that will make you more attractive to employers. Showing that you are a good team player, hard working and have a range of skills is really important. Work out what sort of job you would like to do and find out what sort of skills you will need in order to be considered seriously when you apply.

Finances always require careful management, and this is particularly true when you’re at university. It may well be the first time that you have to stock your own fridge, buy your own loo roll and pay bills.

If you’ve just finished our first term at university, or even if you’re in the middle of your second or third year as an undergraduate, then now is a really good time to have a look at your bank account and plan your spending for next term to avoid splashing too much cash on the wrong things and at the wrong time.

Work out what you need to spend money on each week; this list will include essentials such as food, travel and bills and then leisure (cinema and theatre tickets, gym membership etc), books, stationery, clothes… Set yourself a budget for each area, based on what you know you’ve spent last term and what you think is reasonable. If you think you spent too much on one area last term, then you can curb the cash supply for certain items.

Doing your weekly food shop at Marks and Spencers or Waitrose is probably not entirely necessary and you could save lots of money by shopping in cheaper supermarkets. Treating yourself to luxury items every now and again is fine, but you can save plenty of cash and not lose out on taste if you buy basic items such as rice, pasta, and tinned tomatoes and so on from supermarkets’ basic ranges. This will mean you have more money to spend on other things.

Keep an eye on little added extras that build up. The occasional coffee out or deli-bought sandwich won’t hurt, but if you have these things every day you’ll notice a serious impact on your bank balance. All of those small purchases can add up to one big total amount at the end of term.

Work in a contingency fund to cover unexpected costs. It is inevitable that in the middle of term certain problems will crop up that will need fixing. Your bike might get a puncture or you might notice that none of your socks match and they all have holes in them. If you have planned for the occasional surprise cost then your finances won’t take too much of a hit when a problem occurs,

Leave some money for the end of term…. When the holidays start you’ll want to catch up with friends at home and all those reunion drinks and lunches will need paying for. Make sure you leave some funds to keep you going when term is over.

Get a job in the holidays: your student loan probably won’t cover all of your costs and student holidays are long enough to get a part time job. See if you can get some temp work to boost your account between student loan deposits.

Save some money if you can. It’s always useful to have some reserves and just depositing a little bit every now and again will make a big difference and hopefully prevent you from ever becoming totally broke.

Going to university is about academic development, but it’s also a time to learn about all kinds of adult things like managing your own money. Enjoy yourself, but be sensible as well and try and find a budget that works for you and prevents a desperate phone call to the Bank of Mum and Dad in week four.

As the university terms reach an end it’s time to think about packing up and going home for a well-deserved rest. Before you head off home, here are a few things to think about…

1. Have you cleared out the fridge?
This is particularly important if you live in a rented house and not in halls of residence as there may be no one coming to check the state of the kitchen over the next few weeks. If you leave things in the fridge for too long you may return to find a biological experiment in there, which won’t be terribly pleasant. Also check that the washing up has been done, there are no old pizza boxes or banana skins left on your floor and the bathroom’s been given a decent scrub. It’ll be so much nicer to return to a clean house/room at the start of next term.

2. Do you have any work to do over the vacation?
The answer to this is probably yes, so it is vital to make sure you have been to the library to get all of the books you need. Talk to your tutors before you leave if you do have any queries about your next essay and take any important notes with you too.

3. How has this term been?
Did you do enough work? Did you get enough sleep? Have you taken on too many extra-curricular activities? These are all questions that you should consider at the end of a term. Think about what was particularly great about this term, and what you could improve on. Make a list and then hopefully you’ll make next term even more productive than the last.

4. Are all of your notes in order?
With so many lectures and supervisions to attend, it can be hard to keep everything in the right place in a neat folder. Take a few hours to sort out your notes in a system that makes sense to you. It may seem a bit boring now, but you’ll be grateful when it comes to exam season.

5. What do you need to do this vacation?
Catching up with old friends, eating lots of vegetables and getting a part time job are just some of the things that may be on your list for this vacation. Whatever you feel you need to do, make sure you make the most of the holiday and don’t just let it pass by you.

6. Do you need any help?
Doing a degree is difficult both academically and emotionally. If you are struggling in any area or way, don’t suffer in silence and seek help now, before you become completely overwhelmed.

The current degree classification system of ‘First, 2.i, 2.ii, and third’ is around 200 years old, but now a handful of top universities are thinking about scrapping the system. Eight institutions, including University College London, the London School of Economics, Sheffield, Nottingham, Southampton, Warwick and York are heading towards a more American style of offering point scores.

Many academics are worried that the current system is too crude and that top degrees have been undermined by the fact that so many people are now being awarded high classes. In 2010 62.7% of undergraduates were awarded a first or 2.i. Under the new system every students’ score on a particular paper would be converted into an average point score between one and four, so in stead of a ‘2.i’ you might get a ‘3.5’ or a ‘3.8’.

The points system is currently used in America, where you can also be awarded points for extra-curricular and sporting activities. It is also being increasingly used in China, and so supporters of the ‘GPA’ (grade point average) system say that one of the benefits that it would be more recognisable internationally.

Karen O’Brien, who is the pro-vice-chancellor at Birmingham University, has said that she thinks it would make students work harder because under the GPA every module counts, and if you slack during one, your whole average will be knocked. Birmingham is currently trialling the system and is likely to introduce it properly next year. Nottingham is likely to introduce GPA in 2014, although other institutions’ start dates are currently unclear.

However, not everyone is as enthusiastic about the changes and Oxford and Cambridge are particularly unlikely to follow suit. Most Oxbridge degrees do not rely on modules and nearly all final exams are taken at the very end of the course.

It will be difficult to measure the success of GPA for a few years, but it will be interesting to see what the impact is and whether it does indeed make students work harder. However, if this is one of the main incentives, and it does work, then we may end up with thousands of hard working students who all end up with high GPAs and so it’ll still be difficult to tell which are the smartest graduates again!