Despite finishing university, I'm not yet a graduate. Until I don my mortar board and gown,I am a graduand, a grand-sounding title that means I'm in academic limbo, between student and graduate. Only on 19 July will I finally become a paid-up member of the graduate community. Paid-up is certainly the right phrase. In all, my degree has cost me £29,000.

A starter qualification, the MBM has gained a strong presence in the market

The higher education minister David Willetts, also known as Two Brains, is not only brainy but also very well informed, as he showed in his speech last week at Oxford Brookes University. It was, first and foremost, a joy to read. It sounded like a speech that had been written by the minister himself rather than a civil servant because it was not bland and boring but, rather, interesting and full of sharp references to last year's select committee report on higher education, the Dearing report and Ed Balls. He points out that the former schools secretary doesn't seem to understand that tuition fees in England are not paid upfront but are effectively a capped graduate tax.

It is 10 years since Newcastle launched a plan to take local applicants on lower A-level grades. Lucy Hodges looks at its effectiveness

That's that, then. On Saturday, I finished my formal education. After a three-hour exam in an evangelical church the size of an airplane hangar, I stopped being a student. Others finished their exams with blazing sunshine, I emerged from mine with rain pouring down. It was a bit of a let-down. There was no explosion of joy, confetti or champagne. Instead my seminar group simply stood in the rain, moaning about the exam paper. Those who had predicted the questions correctly had a smug look on their face, and those who had guessed wrongly (like me) glowered.

The world and its granny knows that John Lewis provides you with everything you need from cradle to grave. Less well known, however, is the recent change to its recruitment programme, which from September will run two brand new career tracks – a buying graduate scheme and a merchandising graduate scheme.

University lecturers are threatening national strike action over redundancies. They have rejected proposed changes to their pensions and are asking for a 4 per cent pay rise this year. Are such demands from the University and College Union realistic in such austere times for the economy? We would argue they are not, given the dire state of the public finances and the expected shortfall in the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension pot.

The new Business Secretary, Vince Cable, is quite right to single out the pay of vice-chancellors for attack. There have been extraordinary increases in vice-chancellors' salaries in the past decade: last year, their pay and benefits rose by more than 10 per cent.

In an exclusive interview, the new chief executive of Universities UK tells Lucy Hodges why universities need to sell themselves better

I'm a few days from the end of my degree. Three exams stand between the real world and me. The gravy train is kicking me off at the next stop. There will be no more chunks of cash each term from the Student Loans Company. My part-time job will have to become a full-time one and letters will arrive demanding the council tax, from which I will no longer be immune.

HILARY'S ADVICE

With academics, living so long, Lucy Hodges looks at a gathering storm that could lead to industrial action on our campuses

The Browne review into student finance and higher education funding received some forthright evidence last week about how much more finance universities needed. Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, went so far as to say that her members would have to consider radical steps such as going private if the government didn't increase cash for the universities. And Paul Wellings, vice chancellor of Lancaster University, said students would expect to see minimum class sizes and a commitment to a given amount of contact time with lecturers if the cap were to be raised on top-up fees.

(For the full University Ranking for each subject see www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk )

Lord Browne's review of higher education funding and student finance is receiving some hefty and thoughtful advice, notably from the Russell Group of research-intensive universities which wants to see institutions able to charge what fees they see fit.