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When I was in Year 10, everyone who had achieved above average exam results was asked to complete a questionnaire. We were not told what the purpose of this questionnaire was, nor what the outcome would be. After the routine requests for name and date of birth, we were asked: “Has anyone in your family ever attended university?”

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.

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.

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.

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. 

One of the things that we’re regularly told about the transition from school to university is that we will have to become increasingly independent. Where once we had – or should have had – teachers guiding our learning at every step, we are now encouraged to take responsibility for our own education.

Fifty-seven thousand pounds. That's almost $75,000. This is the estimated level of debt that UK students from less advantaged backgrounds are expected to have on leaving university according to a recent report. Students from more advantaged families don’t really fare much better, accruing up to £43,000 of debt.