Chair of the board, Association of Colleges

Some students prefer to take university-level courses at further education colleges, where they get smaller classes, a more hands-on approach and help with employment when they graduate.

Distance learning provides an opportunity to 'future proof' your career.

Holidays are usually defined narrowly as an escape from work, but, an increasing number of people are seeking something constructive to do in their free time and signing up for a residential course instead of a lazy beach break, according to the Adult Residential Colleges Association (ARCA).

Whether training for a specific career, indulging in academic research, or simply sitting tight to avoid the fierce graduate recruitment market, more and more university leavers are choosing to extend their studies. The Higher Education Careers Services Unit (Hecsu) expects that of the near 300,000 students who graduate this summer, 30 per cent will enrol on a postgraduate course – an extra 30,000 students on the recent average.

Its name may not roll off the tongue easily but medicinal horticulture is the course to be on since the BBC began its series Grow Your Own Drugs this year.

It's a question that has business, industry, educationalists and politicians scratching their heads: why isn't the UK producing more maths, science and engineering graduates? Not enough students are studying these key disciplines at university, A-level and GCSE, with young people consistently being turned off by poor teaching, dull classrooms and the common misconception that these are difficult subjects leading to "geeky" professions.

By his own admission, Dan Buckland, 21, was a trying student when he arrived at London Leisure College. He'd had a bad experience of school and although he was looking forward to training to be a rugby coach at the college – which works in partnership with other London colleges including Greenwich Community College – his confidence was low. Little did he realise that a three-week trip to Zambia with the college, in which the students coached Zambian schoolchildren, would turn his life around.

Sixth-Form Colleges are a better choice than school sixth- forms for many of our young people – yet there appears to be no proactive Government policy to propel the creation of sixth-form colleges where the need is greatest. There are pockets of the country where these institutions abound, but equally in some regions they are very thinly spread.

With the repercussions of the global credit crunch no longer confined to the Square Mile and ordinary households tightening the purse strings amid fears for their jobs and pensions, it may seem perverse to call this a time of opportunity. Yet a period of upheaval can also be a time of renewal, with new business ideas arising from the ashes of the old.

When Sheffield City College decided to trial its own radio station earlier this year, it quickly became a magnet for students. "To think that I was worried about how I'd come up with a regular supply of current shows," laughs Matt Hine, digital media lecturer. "From the start, students at all levels and of all ages were requesting to come in and record shows at lunchtimes and after classes. Many of these students would previously be off just as soon as class was over."

Some of London's top art colleges are seething about cuts that mean that the University of the Arts London is losing £3m and the Royal College of Art £500,000 of research money next year. The cuts have come as a shock because the colleges actually did better in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), but this improvement was not reflected in cash.

Grouped by Local Education Authority

What will it be – an ancient form of combat or knitting for beginners? Caitlin Davies provides inspiration for learning new talents in 2009