Student finance

Students generally do not know even vaguely how much their vice-chancellors earn, as revealed by a very unscientific survey of student bloggers after Times Higher Education’s pay survey was published.

The annual pay survey showed that the highest cost of a vice-chancellor office in the UK was at Durham University, where the total cost of office was £593,000 in 2014-15.

A scholarship that rewards students for doing good deeds for their international counterparts is offering to pay winners’ accommodation costs for a whole semester.

In its third year, the Uniplaces scholarship will reward the top 15 students who submit any evidence of their generosity, as judged by high-profile international education professionals.

Suggested good deeds include taking an international student out for dinner, helping with their administrative paperwork or showing them around the city. Students can also recommend a friend rather than nominate themselves.

Students in the UK are worrying about their finances to such an extent that it is affecting their mental health, according to research revealed today.

More than a third of students say that financial worries have an impact on their mental health, with more female students (38 per cent) dealing with the acute financial worries than male students (33 per cent).

German students are no less competitive than their counterparts in other countries. Let’s face it: we are a success-driven society. The old saying that Germans always aim for perfection, that the best is not good enough, holds true not only for the manufacturing industry, it certainly applies to our education as well.

The highest levels of graduate debt in key English-speaking countries are faced by English university graduates, a report revealed today.

Even compared with graduates of private universities in the US, on average English university students, who now pay tuition fees of £9,000 a year, carry the heaviest burden of debt upon graduation – more than £44,000.

I’m a bit late to the party for watching the 2014 documentary The Ivory Tower, on higher education, but the documentary itself is only becoming more and more relevant. As a fourth-year student getting ready for the transition from post-secondary education to the “real world”, it’s no news for me to hear about rising tuition costs or the pre-graduation anxiety felt over whether what we’ve learned during the academic grind will make us competitive in the job market.

View the full list of the 200 best universities in Europe

A ranking of universities in Europe released today shows that top university choices stretch far beyond the UK, Germany and other usual suspects.

Twenty-two different countries in Europe are represented in the top 200 ranking, with UK universities taking almost a quarter of the places.

Choosing where to study is no easy decision, especially when your options span the whole world.

But student satisfaction data from the International Student Barometer reveal the comparative advantages and disadvantages between studying in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US.

Reports by the International Unit show that international postgraduate students on taught degrees in the UK, along with those in Canada and the US, are generally more satisfied with the learning experience than students on similar degrees in Australia or New Zealand.

Germany could be considered a paradise for students as regards tuition fees. The reason is simple: there are none.

“Asking students who should pay for their education is like asking shoppers who should pay for what they’ve just bought,” commented one professional when I started asking students for their opinions about university funding.

But this analogy, which places a fee-paying student in a simple customer or consumer role, cannot be quite right.