News

The biggest annual arts festival in the world has been taking place in Edinburgh over the past month, as thousands of comedians, actors, dancers and singers gathered for the Edinburgh Fringe.

The event is held in Scotland's capital every year throughout the month of August and attracts some of the most famous acts from around the world. It has a mixture of stand-up comedy, sketch shows, dance acts, and theatre ranging from the contemporary to Ancient Greek Classics. The size of the festival is quite amazing- in 2009 there were 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues and almost 2 million tickets sold.

This Year's Winners

As this year's festival begins to wind down, various awards are being given out for stand out performances. One of the most coveted awards in comedy circles is the best joke of the festival. This year, the honour went to relatively unknown comedian Nick Helm (pictured above) with this joke:

"I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."

If you think that is bad, then think again, as at the other end of the scale, Paul Daniels, an old, famous entertainer and magician, was awarded the ‘honour' of worst joke of the festival with this terrible effort:

A survey has shown that the British public are still five times more likely to recommend higher education than not, even though the gap in graduate vs non-graduate earnings has dropped in recent years.

Despite plans for higher tuition fees and the fact that graduates now earn comparatively less than twenty years ago, the majority of the British public would still recommend higher education to young people.

A recent survey carried out by YouGov Cambridge asked the public how likely they were to recommend higher education to young people, on a scale of 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). The respondents were clearly on the side of university.

Higher Education Recommendations

Overall, 69% answered at least six out of ten, whilst just 16% said four or below. Out of those asked over the age of 55, the figures were even more emphatic, with 50% answering eight or above, compared to only 42% of 18-34 year olds.

The survey was carried out with the fact that fees are increasing in 2012 in mind, and seem to suggest that the general public are not as worried about the increases as has been suggested. A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills backed the survey results and defended the increased fees, saying: 

Every week we bring you a round up of all the student news from the past week, as well as the trends hitting the web at the moment. This week's includes record university numbers, the top gap year destinations and a new discount iPhone 4.  

Student News

University Spaces Fill up in Record Time

The spaces left at universities after the initial intake of students, called 'Clearing', are being filled faster than ever before. Nearly a third more of them have been taken than at this time last year, with almost 18,000 having been filled by Monday morning. Overall, there have been around 10,000 more university applications than there were last year, but the number of places available has remained unchanged.    

READ MORE...

Top 10 Gap Year Destinations

Every year thousands of students finish school and decide to take a year out before starting university to travel the world. Here, the Huffington Post makes ten suggestions for the best destinations to visit during your time away, including tropical beaches, ancient ruins and exotic carnivals. 

On the same day that record numbers of students won places at UK universities, new research suggests that the institutions may have to reduce their £9,000 fees to maintain such high attendance figures.

Yesterday was A-Level results day for hundreds of thousands of British teenagers, many of whom were waiting anxiously to find out if they had been accepted on to their first choice university course. Despite record pass levels, and more university places than ever, thousands were left disappointed due to the unprecedented number of Higher Education applications. However, education experts are already warning that universities will begin to struggle to fill their courses if they start charging £9,000 per year from 2012.

A Day of Record Results

A-Levels are the last exams pupils take in the UK whilst still at school, and are used as the main academic measure for university entry. For the 29th year in a row, A-Level passes rose (to 97.8%), though for the first time in 14 years, the proportion of A and A* grades did not improve on the previous year's (27%). However, the record grades alone have not assured students of a place at university, as they have been matched by record university applications.

Hundreds of messages for Ashraf Haziq have flooded in from around the world over the last week as the public have shown their huge support for him. After the video of him being robbed became one of the iconic images of the London riots, ForeignStudents.com started a campaign to show our support, and the response has been overwhelming.

The Attack

On Monday last week, Ashraf was caught up in the riots in Barking, East London, where his plight was captured on video. The video shows him sitting dazed and bleeding on a London pavement, before it appears that he is helped up by one of the rioters. However, as he is being held up, another of the young rioters opens his rucksack, searches through it and pulls out his mobile phone and wallet, walking off with both of them.