Guides

Once you have your undergraduate degree in hand, stored away the graduation photos and your blood caffeine levels are safely below 90 per cent, you might wonder whether or not to stay in academia and pursue postgraduate study. 

Those who do will be joining an illustrious list of postgraduates that includes Kermit the Frog (honorary doctorate in amphibious letters), Queen guitarist Brian May, and Dexter Holland from The Offspring, who both dropped out of PhD courses to become rock stars before finishing their studies decades later.

You may not know many people who have studied in Australia, but its 43 universities are in fact some of the most popular in the world for international students.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Melbourne and Sydney are two of the best cities for students, and there are other idyllic locations with world-leading universities elsewhere on the island. The education system and application process is different from other Anglophone countries, so we’ve collected the information that you’ll need each step of the way.

Explore the rankings

No matter how much you already know about university options in the UK, you can learn even more detail about individual universities and how they compare with each other by using the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the subject rankings.

As an international student, there are so many different processes you’ll need to understand and navigate when applying to universities in the United States. Here’s a breakdown of the three most important aspects: admissions, funding and visas.

For international students, completing your UK university application online using the centralised system, Ucas, is usually the easiest part of the process.

However, the problems tend to arise as students embark on the visa process and look at how much their degree at a British university is going to cost them. So how can you be sure that you’re meeting all the requirements set by your chosen institutions, and be certain that you are able to cover all the necessary expenses?

Twitter can sometimes be an absolute minefield of different opinions, angry comments and just downright rudeness. But every now and then a Twitter thread appears that is helpful and insightful and sparks thoughtful discussion and advice. 

One such thread was by Dr Sara Althari, who recently received her PhD from the University of Oxford making her part of just a small handful of Saudi women who have ever achieved this. 

To my college tutors I was a typical A* student – destined to achieve top grades that would open the doors to any university in the country. 

They set the bar high with my predicted grades: A* (psychology), A (geography) and A (English literature and language) and assumed I could go anywhere and do anything. The world, as they say, was my oyster. Unfortunately I didn’t share the same belief.

For Ucas Clearing courses for 2023 please click here 

With A-level results day fast approaching in the UK (results are out on 16 August), students will be eager to find out whether they have achieved their first (or second) choice of university. Results day in Scotland is slightly earlier, on 7 August. 

While in the throes of senior year, it can be hard to imagine the ways your life may change when you go to college. Whether you’re dreading the day you finally leave the family home or you can’t wait to move across the country, it’s more than likely that you have not thought about the small adjustments that you will have to make when living away from home.

On the other hand, you may not have completely thought about all the new opportunities that arise from being isolated from your old life.

Starting one’s university life is no easy feat. There are numerous aspects of applying to, deciding on and going to university that students have to deal with. For international students, however, making those decisions can be much harder.