Graduates, parents and students describe what the loan has meant
The BBC has gathered accounts from people at every stage of the system — a graduate who says hindsight is a wonderful thing, parents working out what they can contribute, students deciding whether to apply at all. It is the human version of a month of policy argument, and the recurring theme is that nobody explained how repayment would actually work before they signed.
A decade of enrolment data, and what the country actually studies
An analysis of ten years of enrolment figures shows what UK higher education has become: heavy in business and health, thinner in languages and the physical sciences, and increasingly postgraduate. Useful if you are choosing a subject, because the direction of travel tells you which departments will be well staffed in three years.
A finalist’s list of things to do before leaving
A bucket list for final-year students with one term remaining. Worth reading in March rather than June: the things people regret missing are almost always the ones that needed planning while there was still time. Final year of university covers the rest of it.