Student life

I often tell people to consider joining university societies (or student clubs) in order to take a break from academia and to do something in their spare time other than drink and party. Societies and clubs at university are a diverse collection of groups and organisations ranging from sports teams to hobby organisations to political and liberation groups.

If this is something that you are considering joining when you get to university, take my virtual hand and let me guide you through the minefield that the world of societies can be.

While it is common to hear people say that high school will be the best years of your life, you can make your student years in university, in my opinion, even better. Here, I share my five tips for making the most of your university experience.

What is the TEF?

The teaching excellence framework (TEF) is a system that assesses the quality of teaching in universities in England. It also includes some universities from Scotland and Wales.

The framework was introduced by the government in 2017 to provide a resource for students to judge teaching quality in universities and to increase the importance of teaching excellence (and bring it into line with research excellence) when rating institutions. It is important to note that currently the TEF analyses only undergraduate teaching.

When I first toured the campus at James Madison University as a prospective freshman, I immediately felt that it was warm and welcoming. With friendly tour guides who told me I just had to try the buffalo mash from D-Hall and a beautiful campus with purple-and-gold flowers bursting on every corner, I felt like this was the place for me.

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.

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.