size of US College financial awards

Although this data is a couple of years old, it does indicate for several colleges their typical awards and how many students have benefitted from financial help
http://infousa.state.gov/education/studyteach/docs/intfinaid.pdf

Universities lure students with laptops and bus passes

This story appeared in the Sunday Times on 9/12/12 and was essentailly critical of tehe incnteives given to students if they attend certain courses.  Instead of giving students incentives if they have a financial need, too many incentives are given to the academic high flyers who often come from more wealthy familieis, such is the distorted UK system in comparison to the USA.
Below is a sample of the text

Freebies include textbooks worth £250 at Coventry University,
bus passes at Oxford Brookes University and
gigs at Buckinghamshire New University.
Courses providing free laptops include media at Coventry and electrical engineering at Newcastle.

The new scholarships usually demand early commitment from applicants who are expected to put the university as their first choice. Birmingham offers £3,500 for metallurgy students achieving A*A*A or £2,000 for A*AA. Meanwhile, Leeds is offering £4,000 for A*AA engineering students and Nottingham will pay out £3,000 for AAA applicants wanting to study electrical engineering.

Lower down the league tables, even more is on offer. Northumbria will pay £2,000 for each year of study for students with ABB and above. Kent will pay £2,000 a year for AAA and Worcester £1,000 for ABB and above.

Uni in the USA

A lot has been written about this new site in the last week.  It provides a very comprehensive guide for students from the UK applying to the USA and crucially advice on what bursaries and scholarships may be available. http://www.uniintheusa.com/

medical school interviews

Those with interviews looming for medicine may look at these sites from the huge range available
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/What_you_should_expect_at_a_medical_school_interview
http://www.medical-interviews.co.uk/interview-questions-medical-school-interviews.aspx & http://medschoolsonline.co.uk/index.php?pageid=85

courses for yr12 in law and sciences

Additional dates are now available for March residential courses at Nottingham university  for Law, Journalism, Physics, Forensics and Medics – details at www.workshop-uk.net Medsim and Nursing courses are also available in the summer 2013

courses for aspiring medics and dentists

There are courses in December in Manchester and London for one and/or two days preparing students for Medical and dentistry applications.  They are competitively priced and the subject content does look very worthwhile.  Further details on www.oxbridgemedica.org and www.oxbridgeprodental.com

There is also some very useful reading for potential medics with links for further reading to be found at http://www.workshop-uk.net/medsim

Demand for law courses stays high

Preliminary data shows that the decline in undergraduate law admissions is relatively small, only 3.7% down on 2011. Professor Chris Gale, vice-chairman of the Committee of Heads of University Law Schools (CHULS), said: “I suspect that most law places will have been filled as usual but maybe at a slightly lower point average. Anecdotally, a number of law schools claim to have deliberately capped recruitment so as to be able to give more time for enhancing the student experience... Other schools seem to have filled places but have accepted students they would previously have rejected in the main round.” However, at the private BPP University College, law applications were up 76%.
G Collins COA London

Uni taster days

http://www.unitasterdays.com/  this websites has additional information to www.opendays.com as it includes all kinds of tasters as well as full open days.  It is also a nice touch to add a talk from Moneysaving Expert Martyn Lewis busting some myths about tuition fees.  Well worth watching

free UCAS Card

This is free for students in Year 12 and provides a number of benefits including up to date course information, personal statement help and discounts in stores.  At the moment, applicants are entered into a prize draw for free money as well. http://www.ucas.ac.uk/ucascardwin

Student Finance Guides

Chester University provide these very easy to read guides and videos that explain student finance and have a calculator to work out how much you will pay back
http://www.chester.ac.uk/studentfinance/guides

residential courses for prospective engineers

Last year a number of my students attended these courses for 13-18 year olds run by http://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/ Some of the courses are free but all represent good value as food and accommodation is included along with tuition.  They ought to be of interest to anyone interested in a career in engineering

UK Uni fair for overseas students in London

On Saturday 3rd November 2012 the largest university fair for applicants not from the UK but intending to apply to UK universities takes place at Earls Court.  Over 70 universities will be present and details of scholarships can be obtained.  More details at http://www.ukunifair.co.uk/

future lawyers - free online resources

www.college-of-law.co.uk/futurelawyers contains help for those who wish to work in law.  What I found particularly interesting was the section covering up to date legal news and views.

new unistats site

http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/ this site has been updated to include a whole host of additional informtation and published statistics.  I have now spent a week looking at the site and am not sure more data helps.  The ability to add to a "compare" section allows users to narrow searches down.  The problem is that one course will perform well in one criteria adn not so well elsewhere.  That at least allows the user to decide what is important to them.

new site with work experience opportunities

http://www.studentladder.co.uk/ this site has lists of companies who can provide advice and work experience for GCSE and Sixth form students.  Definately worth a look.

So you want to be a doctor

27th Annual conference for potential medics on 17 & 18 December at Liverpool. The cost is 143 pounds each

Improve your chances of becoming a doctor or lawyer

EPOC are organising these one day courses through February and March 2013 at various venues www.epoc.org.uk to register at 89 pounds each

US College Day

This annual event is on 28 and 29 September in Kensington.  Over 150 universities should be there.  www.fulbright.org.uk to register for free or pay on the day

UKCAT now open for registration

The 26 University Medical and Dental schools that require candidates to take this test as part of the admissions process are as follows:

University of Aberdeen, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Cardiff University, University of Dundee, University of Durham, University of East Anglia, University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, University of Glasgow, Hull York Medical School, Imperial College London, Keele University, King's College London, University of Leeds, University of Leicester, University of Manchester, University of Newcastle, University of Nottingham, Plymouth University, Queen Mary University of London, Queen's University Belfast, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University of St Andrews, St George's University of London, Warwick University.

Details of courses for which these institutions require applicants to take the test can be found atwww.ukcat.ac.uk/who-takes-the-test/ukcat-universities/

UKCAT test Locations

The test is offered at a choice of over 150 UK high street test centres and over 300 testing centres worldwide. The closing date for registering to take this test is 21 September 2012. However, due to high demand, students should register to take this test immediately to ensure they get a test slot at their chosen test centre.

Registration opens	01 May 2012
Testing begins	03 July 2012
Registration deadline	21 September 2012
Bursary application deadline	21 September 2012
Exemption application deadline	21 September 2012
Last testing date	05 October 2012
UCAS application deadline	15 October 2012

Y11 interested in law or medicine?

The popular courses "Improving your chances of becoming a doctor or lawyer" are available for booking for Spring 2013 and will suit current year 11 and possibly year 10 who are considering such careers.
http://www.epoc.org.uk/

New dates for medlink and vetlink courses

Any student applying for medicine or veterinary science ought to attend one of these courses. 
http://www.workshop-uk.net/
Also dates for chemistry, physics and law courses are available.  Another useful site is the medlink student section which has further confirmation about the courses. http://www.medlink-uk.net/faq/students

new features in UCAS Apply for 2013

Students will soon be able to log on to Apply for entries in 2013.  Before anyone does log on make sure that you have the buzzword for your school or college.  A few things are set to change for the new look Apply .
1. The fee increases from £22 to £23 - however, you are only charged when the form is sent, there is no cost for keeping options open until you decide to press send.
2.  There is a new page for EU students with information about finance
3.  New password rules.  UCAS will set your username, however your password must be 6-14 characters, have one lowercase and one uppercase character, have at least one number.

UCLan Open days - next is 16 June

A few of my students have applied here in recent years and open days are due in June, Sept, Oct and November.  what is of great interest to many is the opening of a £15m sports centre and an outdoor Olympic standard sports arena.  details of open days on www.uclan.ac.uk/opendays.  They also have a modern looking website explaining the benefits of studying there http://www.uclan.ac.uk/advantage/

So you want to be a doctor conferences

Courses from ATOM covering advanced medicine, preparation for UCAS and for UKCAT and BMAT are available for years 11, 12 & 13.  These day conferences are likely to fill up quickly, so register early if you wish to be assured of a place.
Details on http://www.atomconference.com/

Free summer school courses at Lancaster

Students who meet the following criteria

The student comes from a home where neither parent attended university in the UK or abroad.

The student is, or has been a looked after young person

The student lives in a ‘low participation’ neighbourhood as defined by home postcode

The student is in receipt of, or entitled to, free school meals.

The student has experienced difficult family or individual circumstances that School/College believe have affected their performance in exams or the likelihood of their going to university

The student has a disability

can receive the benefits of free residential courses.  Details can be found at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/schools/summer-schools/
Pupils on the Gifted & talented register (Aim Higher register) also qualify, although your school have to approve your application. 

UCAS Extra

This is for students who have no offers or who have declined offers but still wish to make an application before results day and join in the rush for places through clearing.  All information plus links to videos and twitter links can be found on http://www.ucas.com/students/offers/extra

IB summer revision courses

After good feedback from students attending these in the past, IB students should be aware of the summer revision courses run by St Clares in Oxford www.stclares.ac.uk/ib

Student satisfaction survey

The THES student experience survey has just been published and as usual contains a wealth of information. The sample sizes are much smaller than the more famous NUS survey, but I feel the results are of interest. Overall, 14,000 students were sampled using 21 categories that had been chosen as most important by the students themselves. Some universities did not have a big enough sample to make quota and the list is smaller this year.

TOP 10 OVERALL                                TOP FOR SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

UNIVERSITY	2011	2010		UNIVERSITY	2011	2010
Dundee	1	5		Loughborough	1	2
Loughborough	2	1		Sheffield	1	3
Sheffield	3	2		Dundee	3	1
Oxford	4	6		Leeds	3	8
Cambridge	5	4		Newcastle	3	15
East Anglia	6	3		Bristol	3	52
Southampton	7	10
Aberystwyth	8	9
Glasgow	8	7
Leeds	8	8

BOTTOM 10 OVERALL                                          BEST ACCOMODATION

UNIVERSITY	2011	2010		UNIVERSITY
London Met	105	109		Cambridge	1
University of East London	104	112		Dundee	2
City	103	110		Lancaster	2
Middlesex	101	111		Loughborough	4
London South Bank	101	108		Sheffield	4
University of the Arts	99	107		Oxford	4
University of the West of Scotland	99	96		East Anglia	4
Westminster	98	113
Wolverhampton	97	94
Napier	94	98

The other London universities also came low; UCL 49 (61), Kings 55 (74), Brunel 65 (58), Imperial 71 (62), Goldsmiths 84 (90), LSE 85 (92), Greenwich 89 (101) and Kingston 94 (99).

thanks to GCollins of www.ceslondon.com