United Kingdom

In April 2013, Ellie Wood dropped out of her undergraduate degree at the University of Liverpool, just seven months after starting.

In this time, she’d been forced to take on crippling debt just to afford university housing and the other expenses that come with living in a big city. Ultimately, the cost was too much to bear.

Ucas applications are (finally) over – for this year. While early birds may have seen their offers rolling in already, the rest of you have some waiting ahead.

If you’ve been so wrapped up in the application that you haven’t even thought about the next steps, this breakdown of what to expect will add a little structure to your next few months.

What do we want? “A simpler system with students at the centre.”

And how are we going to achieve this? “Improve teaching quality, open up the higher education sector and drive value for money.”

Students in an online chat forum have named more than 60 UK universities they feel are “underrated”, with many agreeing that the University of Bath deserve more recognition.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) was underrated, particularly for medicine and law.

Katie blogs in response to 'British student criticises competitive UK medical courses after securing university place in Italy':

I'm not going to lie, getting into medical school is difficult. It consumes your life and, even then, it seems like a bit of a lottery with every step. Will you get an interview? Will you get a place? Will you get the grades?

When you apply to medical school there is the unspoken idea that the London medical schools are best. With three of them consistently in the top ten for medicine in university league tables it’s unsurprising ‒ they boast high levels of research, wide catchment areas for placements and some of the brightest and best lecturers and clinicians to learn from.

So you’re thinking about attending university. You’ve been to the open days, written your personal statement and taken a stiff drink to numb the pain of those impending student debts. However, the one thing no-one has told you about is what your day-to-day life may be like. Allow me to rectify that as I share a day in the life of a UK university student.

Revealing information about graduate earning potential for different UK universities and courses could soon be publicly available, as the government works to release anonymised data.

If universities agree to the plan, salary data from HMRC will be cross-referenced with alumni records to provide an insight into the future prospects of students studying specific courses at specific universities.

The information will be handed to web developers, who can use it to build online tools to help students better understand the opportunities available to them.

Hundreds of graduate opportunities are available across the UK in financial services, retail, manufacturing and the public sector, according to research released today.

A list of the top employers, compiled by The Complete University Guide, confirms that financial services firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young hire the most graduates in the UK.

The world’s best universities have been revealed with the release of the 2015-16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which feature more institutions and countries than ever before.

For the fifth year running, the Harvard University’s reign in 2011-12.

The UK is putting pressure on the US in the highest ranks, with the Stanford University in third.