- Student Life RSS Feed

10 things not to do in your long summer break

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:08:16 +0100

So here it is. You’ve got a long summer stretching out in front of you with nothing to do. September is a long way off and you should probably do something nice and productive with the next three months or so. Probably. Alternatively, you could try any of our helpful suggestions. Warning – your mum might have a nervous breakdown if you do any of this instead of something productive.

So you've graduated: Now what?

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:01:22 +0100

As students we are all expected to have some idea of our lives after university. After all, we chose our degree path to fit, right? Well, unfortunately not all of us are that decisive.

In defence of a university education

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:22:04 +0100

“So, you want to go to university eh?” asked my Grandad as he settled into his favourite armchair, “I never went to university, and look at all I’ve got!” he said, triumphantly pointing through the window towards the Ford Escort parked on the drive.

Are students turning to gambling in the face of increased money troubles?

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:45:44 +0100

One in five students are turning to gambling as a way to make money at university, while one in four would consider selling their body to medical trials or the adult entertainment industry.

The 20 best things to do this summer 2013

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:13:37 +0100

The long, golden British summer stretches ahead of you now: three glorious months of luxury and hedonism. And with our guide to the best things going on this year, you'll never be at a loss for stuff to do...

Students taking part in clinical trials: What you need to know

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:19:05 +0100

Students around the country are feeling the pinch when it comes to their living costs. Many are choosing to take the strain off the bank of Mum and Dad by supplementing their maintenance loans through alternative income sources.

Does more need to be done to integrate transgender people at university?

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:03:32 +0100

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO); it's the opportunity to make people aware of homophobic issues negatively impacting on people’s lives, and celebrate positive changes in the lives of those who identify themselves as transgender.

Students! Don't forget to apply for a TV Licence refund

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:37:32 +0100

With exams steaming ahead and summer holidays on the horizon, there probably isn't anything further from your mind than dealing with the TV licence.

10 things no student should ever waste money on

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:10:21 +0100

Somehow, it’s already the middle of 2013. We’ve survived apocalypse scares, generated celebrities who are more influential than politicians, and grown into adulthood without everything we’ve forgotten about Egyptian pharaohs from primary school being a hindrance to everyday life.

Oxbridge Finals: The toughest exams in the country

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:34:20 +0100

It is that time of the year again. Up and down the country, thousands of students are cooped up at library desks, attempting to cram the information necessary to get through finals and out to the other side, degree in hand. And I am one of them – a Cambridge finalist, attempting to deal with the Oxbridge stress in the only way I know: caffeine hits and reclusion.

Procrastinator, braggart or workaholic: Which revision stereotype are you?

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:45:22 +0100

They’re coming. You can feel it in the air, a moment of stillness before all hell breaks loose and Voldemort pops in for a cuppa. At universities across the UK, night club staff blink in the gloomy silence. It’s time, people: once again you will be put to the test, dripping in red bull and desperation. It's exam season.

Do disabled students get enough support at university?

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:32:02 +0100

Applying to universities, sorting out student finance, finding accommodation, all while trying to get the grades, is a stressful process for any student before they set off for uni. But if you are disabled, these challenges can be just the start of a frustrating university experience.

Ingenious ways of making money, without even having to get up off your backside

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:38:13 +0100

As summer swiftly approaches, there is a distinct realisation both for undergraduates and graduates that a whole summer - or life - with no money, no job and no student loan looms on the horizon.

How to survive your final semester

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:15:35 +0100

Final term is full of deadlines, cramming and late, late nights in the library. Whilst everyone else is running out of funds due to reinstated take-away habits and chain-smoking tendencies, save your bank balance, your health and your sanity with our final semester survival guide…

Do students need an Apple iPad?

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:58:01 +0100

In this digital age, laptops and tablets have become a common sight in lecture theatres and seminar rooms. It goes without saying that a laptop has become an essential feature of student life (as has a USB stick for when the aforementioned laptop inevitably crashes...), but are iPads going the same way? Are iPads now essential for university life?

Be your own student Masterchef: Cooking delicious food with simple ingredients

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:40:55 +0100

In this day and age it’s hard not to feel like everyone should be a ‘Masterchef’, but have you have ever succeeded in recreating one of these televised mouth-watering masterpieces?

We students need to ditch our addiction to energy drinks

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:51:25 +0100

If you’ve been reading this column religiously, you will know that I am irritated by fairly niche things.

Nearing the edge: It's the finals countdown

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:39:14 +0100

It’s here. Final semester. And for some of us - the ones chain smoking on campus, setting up 48-hour stations in the library, and jittering with caffeine, it’s the final term of final year.

What does it mean for students to 'have it all'?

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:15:31 +0100

Students. Are we binge-drinking, Sainsbury's Basics-loving hooligans, or go-getting shiny-faced wonders of the future? Society cannot make up its mind about us: to the world at large, we're weird creatures, both more sexed-up than One Direction and more screwed up than Gordon Ramsey’s forehead.

Top 10 revision tips for your final (or first-year) exams

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:05:59 +0100

As Easter holidays are coming to an end, hundreds of thousands of students across the country start panicking about the fact that very little revision has been done so far, in the run up to the exams that now seem just around the corner. But don’t panic: it’s never too late to start revising. Here are 10 winning revision tips that will get you off a flying start.

Ten things I wish I'd known before I started university

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:09:12 +0100

I’m facing my final term at university and no matter how much I try and pack light, I know I will still manage to cram the car to capacity.

Wouldn't the gym be so much better without all the people in it?

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:50:47 +0100

The gym contains a cross section of people that I'd equate with Kings Cross on a Friday night. Thin, fat, black, white, brown, chatting, silent, moaning, lean, long, lanky, petite, those carrying lots of weight and those hands free. This is both its best and worst quality, being consumed with a wide selection of Queen Mary’s student body.

Five ways to get the best out of your landlord

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:49:19 +0100

Moving from halls to private housing is both exciting and stressful, with many things to consider. It is also a dangerous time for students. According to a recent survey by the boffins at StudentBeans, 68 per cent of students feel they have been taken advantage of by landlords. Here are some of the common pitfalls of life as a tenant, and ways to work around them.

Am I weird for being a student who hates clubbing?

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:54:53 +0100

We all have fears. Stopped trains, spiders, fire. I fear clubbing, just everything about it. To check I hadn’t metamorphosed overnight, ascended to a parallel universe or lost my mind, I recently revisited a club I occasionally frequented while underage.

Live on £53 per week? Try that on a student loan, Iain...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:37:24 +0100

In a couple of weeks, we students will be able to stop the thrifty spending and strict budgeting.

The simple guide to Career Development Loans

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:25:38 +0100

It will suffice for me to say that much of the readily available information covering Career Development Loans (also known as Professional and Career Development Loans) is not always as lucid as it could be.

We must do more to fight sexual harassment at university

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:12:27 +0100

Sexual harassment at university: it’s not something most students believe will occur, when packing their bags for a few years of further education. Yet worryingly, harassment, whether it takes place at the SU bar, that club off campus, or even through social networking sites, is an unfortunate part of many female students’ experience at university. We don’t talk about it much, but it’s an issue that needs confronting.

Surviving dissertation season: The dreaded essay cave

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:08:52 +0000

I've been wearing an old t-shirt; white with a picture of Madonna aged 18, sucking a lollipop in a semi-seductive way, for the past three weeks.

What's worse than finding a mouse in your flat?

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:27:12 +0000

There are some scenarios that should not be handled alone, and after ten pm. Largely, this surrounds rodents - or potential rodents - leaking taps, broken boilers and dodgy shower hoses. Bizarrely, this has been the run down of the last month in my matchbox flat.

Are universities doing enough to support students with mental health problems?

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:15:59 +0000

Within just four years the number of student suicides has doubled in women and risen by over a third in men, data from the Office for National Statistics shows. Students are facing intense pressure to succeed under heavy financial burdens due to high tuition fees and a tough job market. Yet long waiting lists for university counselling services dissuade many in need of help from seeking it in the first place.

The strange case of Octavia Sheepshanks

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:20:51 +0000

A cunning columnist came up with a unique way to get the better of her online critics last week.

We're not children, so why are student cookbooks so patronising?

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:25:12 +0000

The Waterstone’s website has seventy-one different student cookbooks. That’s a lot of pasta and pancakes. I hate to point out the blindingly obvious, but isn’t a recipe just a recipe? There isn’t a specific student supermarket that I’m aware of, so according to my logic, no need for student-specific cookbooks. They definitely don’t make student-priced utensils, at any rate.

Dropping out of university: It's not the disaster you think it is

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:40:53 +0000

The best three years of your life, they say. You’ll hear it a million times before you go, while you’re there, and after you leave: university will be the best three years of your life. But what if it’s not?

Study finds "unacceptably stark" differences between rich and poor students

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:56:50 +0000

Teenagers from poorer backgrounds remain much less likely to go to university, and to study at a top institution, according to a report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Vote with your feet and give student elections a miss this year

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:42:35 +0000

It’s election season, I’m so excited - said no one ever. There’s something about student politics that makes me uneasy. I’m not sure whether it’s the insistent paper-wasting leafleting, the onslaught of cheesy, 'persuasive' posters that this year have crept into the union bar loos, or the preposterous, arrogant manifestos that promise the world, but ultimately achieve nothing.

Universities ignoring binge drinking culture and failing to protect students' wellbeing, say teachers

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:46:08 +0000

Universities are failing in their duty of care to undergraduates by ignoring the binge drinking culture and failing to help young people settle into student life, according to head teachers.

Unite sees improved overseas demand for student housing

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:57:42 +0000

Demand for student rooms is picking up again after the huge uncertainty triggered by the Coalition’s introduction of £9,000-a-year tuition fees, according to the boss of the UK’s biggest accommodation provider.

The simple guide to student finance applications

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:18:38 +0000

These moments of the year are often spiced with a faint unease, an unremitting ‘what have I forgotten?’ When student finance applications opened in February, good intentions meant applying for the loan hit the top of the to-do list, but as other distractions come along, it stays there, watching items below getting crossed off, slowly but surely becoming just a guilty feeling in the back of your mind.

Reading week: What is it good for?

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:52:08 +0000

When was the last time you read a book of your choice? If you can't remember, I am right there with you.

Field science: When your degree takes you to the jungle

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:21:41 +0000

At some point in my teens, I found myself so lost in the mesmerising world portrayed by David Attenborough, that I knew no other vocation could possibly satisfy me. I wanted to live it. So here I am a few years later, living in the tropical rainforest of Eastern Ecuador, an intrepid explorer and novice field scientist.

Six delicious dishes you can make in halls on the cheap

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:45:46 +0000

Being on a student budget, in a crowded kitchen with limited time to cook might mean that ready meals are often the easiest option. But they don’t have to be, here are some recipes that are hassle free, reasonably healthy and mum-friendly.

Attack of the hacks: it's student union election season

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:31:26 +0000

University life always has its ups and downs. Getting away from home, meeting new people, and being free to do whatever you want is juxtaposed against exams, masses of reading, and a near-constant stream of coursework deadlines. However, these advantages and disadvantages are at no point more polarised than during the elections period, where students campaign to become the people to lead the Students’ Union for the next academic year.

Life lessons for students from Elizabeth Bennett

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:15:22 +0000

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is celebrating its 200-year anniversary this year, and is still regarded as one of the country's favourite novels, coming second place in the BBC’s Big Read mission to find the nation’s best-loved book.

Third-year fever: All the things you need to do before you leave

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:36:30 +0000

First year is fresher’s mania, and, consequently, fresher’s flu, where you’re finding your feet and exploring a new city. Second year you’re out of halls and into your first shared house; amongst disputes about who’s doing the cleaning, it’s an even greater taste of independence. Then before you know it your final year rolls around. Despite being a veteran of the university lifestyle, have you actually done everything you said you would during all of that first year excitement?

My story: Living with OCD

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:07:20 +0000

When I moved away from home, to a new city, with new people I thought I was about to start one of the most exciting periods of my life. What I didn’t expect was that after four months I would be experiencing not only the high life of university but also the anxiety of OCD.

Mental health: Don’t suffer in silence

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:35:38 +0000

University: it is depicted in the media as one long, unending party and the chance complete the ‘essential life experience’ of activities before graduation. Everyone expects young people to be euphoric on the university experience and for many, this is not far wrong.