News

It is something familiar to the vast majority of students and graduates. You are approaching the end of your degree course and you suddenly hear the words ‘job applications'. It can often be a daunting prospect starting your graduate job hunt, particularly if you are unsure of exactly what kind of role you would like to work in. But where do graduates actually look for jobs? When it comes to the process of job hunting for a graduate role, what does it actually involve?

A recent graduate jobs survey for Total Jobs suggests that the majority of graduates looking for jobs in London. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as London is the location of many large corporations, as well as public institutions, both of which are popular options for graduates. The South East is the second most popular location for graduate job hunting, suggesting that the country is ‘bottom heavy' when it comes to roles desired by graduates.

A new survey has revealed that more students at English universities and colleges are happy with their courses than ever before. Released by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the results show that 83% of final year students were ‘satisfied' with their education experience, whilst just 9% were dissatisfied.

Top Marks

The annual National Student Survey has been running for seven years and aims to not only show the general satisfaction of students in the UK, but also highlight where universities can improve the experience they offer. The questions are put to students finishing the final year of their course and are based on their entire higher education experience. Seven different categories are covered by the survey, including quality of teaching (which satisfied 84% of students) and academic support (77% satisfied).

Overall, every single category had either a higher or equal satisfaction rate compared to 2010; a point that the Minister for Universities David Willetts was quick to praise:

"This survey shows that student satisfaction is high on average. This is welcome news. No wonder record numbers of young people at home and abroad wish to study at our world-class universities".

One-year Master's students in Britain are all too familiar with the situation described so brilliantly by my good friend and fellow Master's student:

INSTALLING SUMMER.....

███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 44% DONE.

Install delayed....please wait.

Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found. Season "Summer" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is unavailable in England.

Perhaps my friend was referring to the lack of sun and warmth that characterizes this time of the year in England yet is unthinkable for the season in his native Brazil. But perhaps he was referring to the lack of summer that comes from having to write a thesis during vacation. You have all heard that British people are obsessed with time, and one-year Master's programs in England are no exception. Forget about that September-May nonsense; here they last exactly one year. While we attend classes for the first nine months, the last three months after final examinations are destined to the dissertation writing process.

The victim in one of the videos of the London riots that has most shocked the British public has been revealed as a Malaysian international student. The video shows Asyraf Haziq 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.

The shocking scene was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube, where it has already been viewed over a million times and played on repeat on British news channels.

Last night marked the fourth day of riots in Britain, with the focus turning away from London, and towards Manchester, Birmingham and a whole host of other UK cities. Now familiar scenes played out as rioters looted shops, set fire to buildings and attacked police, leading to 479 arrests and, for the first time, three deaths.

The Spread of Violence

The long list of towns and cities affected by violence last night includes Manchester, Salford, Birmingham, Gloucester, Nottingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Bristol, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, encompassing the South-West, Midlands and North-West of England. Whilst the biggest numbers of rioters were seen in Manchester, some of the most shocking scenes were elsewhere.

In Nottingham, a police station was set alight by a group of 30 to 40 men who firebombed it at around 10pm, though there were no injuries. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for Birmingham, where three men lost their lives after they were hit by a car. It is thought that they had been protecting their neighbourhood from the rioters, and their deaths are being treated as murder, although it is currently unclear whether the collision was directly related to the riots.