Northern Ireland’s student support numbers, and early figures for this year
The Student Loans Company has set a date for its Northern Ireland statistics, covering the financial support paid to students in 2025/26 along with early in-year figures for 2026/27. Northern Ireland runs its own fee and maintenance arrangements, so these are the only figures that describe what an NI student actually receives. Student finance explained sets out how the four nations differ.
Student Loans Company, 17 August
Why fewer international students means fewer courses for everyone
HEPI sets out the arithmetic behind the year’s course closures: international fees have been cross-subsidising teaching for home students, so a fall in international recruitment lands as cut modules, merged departments and larger seminar groups rather than as a line in an accounts document. It is the clearest explanation of why a recruitment problem abroad shows up in your timetable.
What to actually take to university
A packing guide written by students who have done it, and the useful half is what to leave behind: the kitchen equipment four other people will also bring, the printer nobody uses, the winter coat that could follow at Christmas. Halls storage is smaller than any photograph suggests. Moving to university covers the same ground with the paperwork included.
What not to do in freshers week
The counterpart list: do not spend the whole week with the first people you meet, do not sign a house contract for next year in October, do not treat the fresher’s fair as a commitment, and do not measure the week against anyone’s posts. Freshers week is a bad predictor of the rest of the year, in both directions. Freshers week covers what the week is actually for.