The Guardian’s 2027 rankings move eleven universities a long way down
The Guardian University Guide 2027 has eleven universities falling more than twenty places. Rankings move that far because the measures are volatile — graduate outcomes and student satisfaction can swing a position on small samples — rather than because a university changed by twenty places’ worth in a year. Useful for spotting a course whose satisfaction has collapsed; useless as a measure of prestige.
“Why has university become such a scam?”
Zoe Williams argues that graduates leaving with an average debt of £53,000 into a collapsing entry-level job market have been sold something that no longer does what it promised, and that politicians have avoided the question for a decade. It is a comment piece rather than a report, but the two numbers it rests on are the ones every current student is living with.
A two-tier system is forming around visa refusal rates
Analysis forecasting visa refusal rates by mission group suggests the Russell Group may be the only one comfortably inside the compliance thresholds, with other universities closer to the limits that put a sponsor licence at risk. For an international applicant, a sponsor’s standing is now worth checking alongside the course. Being an international student in the UK explains what sponsorship means.
Making a room you have to live in for a year feel like yours
Practical advice on the halls bedroom, which has to work as study, bedroom, kitchen annexe and the place you see people at once. What is worth buying, what most accommodation contracts prohibit — adhesive hooks, candles, anything screwed to a wall — and why lighting changes a room more than posters do. You will spend more hours in it than in any teaching space, which is the argument for spending an afternoon on it. Moving to university covers what to bring.