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I remember dreaming of university as a 16-year-old. I received excellent GCSE results and all I could think about was going to college, smashing my A levels, and then attending a Russell Group university and “living the dream”. I had planned to study outside London, and I was excited to move away. I had imagined that I would call my mum every week, and video call my brother, and have the best years of my life.

I phoned my father at the start of sophomore year to tell him that I had declared social studies as my major. There was silence on the other end of the phone for a little while and then he asked, “What’s that?”

Social studies is a degree that very few people outside the Harvard community, particularly outside the US, know about. I find myself describing it as Harvard’s version of politics, philosophy, economics (PPE), which is mostly true, but it also includes statistics and history.

If you don’t study in the United States, you have probably never heard of a historically black university or college (HBCU). Or you have and you aren’t entirely sure what they are. 

HBCUs are higher education institutions created before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide higher education for African American students at a time when they were not permitted to attend colleges alongside white students. Many of these institutions were created with assistance from religious organisations.

As an electrical engineering master’s student at the Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI), which is located in the south of Minas Gerais, my routine is pretty unusual. I work part-time as an independent software consultant, and the other half of my day is dedicated to UNIFEI activities: attending lectures, working in research labs, mentoring students, teaching short-term extension courses and reporting to my advisers.

My day at a glance

When I started studying at Yale University in August 2017, I thought I knew what to expect. Fooled by a common language, I was unaware of the subtle but abundant cultural differences that awaited me in the United States.

In the University of Oxford.

Warren Stanislaus – four-year bachelor’s degree in liberal arts at International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo

The introduction of undergraduate tuition funding in England has been a great force for social mobility, allowing those who previously could not afford to go to university the opportunity. But, while this has been hailed a success, our best and brightest are unfortunately held back by governmental funding for postgraduate study.     

2018 was another roller coaster year for higher education, but among the headline-grabbing articles about student debt and “too many first-class degrees”, there were some positive stories.

The conversation around student mental health has never been louder and universities are pushing this issue higher up their agenda than ever before. International student mobility is another topic that universities are prioritising, with the global higher education sector regularly expressing the benefits of studying overseas and investing in attracting students from abroad.

One thing I can certainly say about my life as a second-year mathematics and physics bachelor’s student at École Polytechnique is that recurrent tests, projects and assignments make the establishment of routine practically impossible. However, despite all the unpredictable twists and turns that make my student life continually challenging (and exciting), here is how I would describe a typical day of mine.

Up and at them

Housing was something that meant very little to me before I started university. I lived in my parents’ house and I knew a bit about the property market, but it was never an issue that I needed to spend time thinking about. Like most, I knew that the norm for students in the UK was to spend the first year in halls then move out into a house. However, I was not aware of two things: how soon it had to be sorted and how complicated it would become.