Smash Hit

Innovative minds are essential

University education trains students to think for themselves and to collaborate in their development as skilled creators of knowledge

Foreign applications to universities rise

Student leaders call on Government to expand number of places next year and so that promising candidates don't miss out

Students face scramble for university places

Early applications increase by 15 per cent, with most of the extra places pledged by the Government already taken

No end in sight for university struggle

Britain's financial recovery is unlikely to be strong enough to fund places for those students who apply next year

Universities ‘have not earned higher fees’

If I had to vote now I would not back an increase, shadow minister David Willetts tells NUS on eve of an official review

Times graduate trainee scheme

Apply to become a journalist at one of the world's top news organisations

Middle-class teens opt for online university learning to save money

Martin Bean, a former Microsoft executive - the first non-academic head of the Open University - said teens struggle to afford residential courses

The teachers who can do no right

A report claims that a third of teachers have been falsely accused of wrongdoing. Is it time parents recognised their responsibilities?

Travel the Trans-Siberian railway

Georgia Graham makes her way east to west through Mongolia by train and discovers the secret to long life along the way

Students face hardship in loans breakdown

Tens of thousands still awaiting funds a fortnight into the new term as Student Loans Company blames technical problems

young times: art out of the ordinary

At the Frieze Art Fair in London this week, a group of pupils have been making modern art — with carrots.

Couch-surfing your essential guide

The ‘couch’ can be anything you want it to be – from a back garden ideal for a camper to a separate bedroom

MPs’ alarm as thousands await student loans

Urgent inquiry is demanded as company fails to cope with the rise in applications and universities make emergency payments

The top 50 universities in the world

The rankings are based on surveys of academics and the views of employers about the best graduates

Britain takes over in world’s Top Ten

Cambridge is the highest placed British institution with University College London moving into fourth and Oxford in fifth

How to set up a student club night

If you know where to start and are prepared for hard graft, setting up a club night at university can be a fun way to supplement your student loan

Why relationships with tutors should stay platonic

A vice-chancellor recently argued that flirtation between male lecturer and female students is the fault of the girls

Tories pledge 10,000 extra university places

Record numbers of students started university this autumn but thousands of teenagers were left disappointed in the intense competition

Profile: University of Stirling

Funding body wants university degree shake-up

Report says the ancient system of classing degrees as firsts, upper or lower seconds, or thirds needs to be refined