Whether you love it or hate it, Christmas is nearly upon us and universities around the world have been embracing the festive season with open arms.
From setting up Christmas trees and decorations, organising seasonal events and capturing beautiful snowy campuses, universities are sharing the Christmas joy across social media.
Here at Times Higher Education Student, we have scrolled through Instagram and picked some of the most festive posts to help you get into the Christmas spirit.
One thing I don’t think I’ll get used to is the warm weather in Sydney around Christmas time.
For the past two years I have returned to the States so that I can spend the holidays with my family. Considering that I grew up in Midwest America where we definitely don’t have any shortages of white Christmases, it feels rather strange for me to be in a warm place like Sydney around December. For me, there is something a bit unsettling about people singing Let it Snow when it’s getting close to 30ºC out.
There have been many changes in higher education in 2017. The introduction of the teaching excellence framework in the UK sent shock waves through the academy as a number of prestigious universities, including the University of Southampton were rated bronze, with the results no doubt influencing the choices that international students will make when considering which UK university to attend.
One of the pleasures of doing a PhD is that from time to time you can clock off early, abandon the library and do something else without anyone’s permission. For me, that mostly involves heading to the cinema.
My most recent trip was to see the superb Call Me by Your Name, the story of an intense but tender relationship that develops between two young men over a single summer in the early 1980s.
Going to university should not be limited because you have a disability, and I would like to believe that this is the case for everyone. Many factors need to be taken into account when choosing which university to study at. It is always worth considering every aspect of university life, such as campus size, commute and timetabling, and not allowing your disability to be the only deciding factor.
When starting university, many people are 18, just leaving home for the first time, and comparing their A-level results.
However, I do not fit into any of these categories because I’m 25 and approaching the end of my first term studying specialist sports journalism at the University of Derby.
In the British public’s imagination, Oxbridge is the pinnacle of academia.
There is a belief that Oxbridge is full of rich, white, private schoolers with the brainpower (or amazing general knowledge) of University Challenge contestant Eric Monkman. The media often sensationalises the admissions process, taking questions out of context to make these universities sound unreasonable.
Every year, more and more students choose not to drink alcohol, bucking the stereotype that students spend most of their time drinking.
I personally do not see the point of alcohol. It doesn’t taste very good, in my opinion, and nothing good comes from it. Moreover, it’s very expensive to spend money on drinks as a student.
As my first semester in New York comes to a close, I can’t say I’m not a little bit excited about returning home for winter break. As fun and unconventional as my university experience has been so far, I'm eager to return to the normality of Scotland. The hectic city life over the past four months has left me longing for the peacefulness of home.
My name is Fatima Afzal and this is my story of how I became a female engineer in an international environment.
My experience began when I applied to a British petrochemical company for my industrial placement year, as part of my chemical engineering degree at Aston University. Immediately after accepting the offer I started working in one of the facilities in Malaysia. This provided me with a great platform to launch my engineering career.