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So why wouldn't you want to expand your educational and cultural horizons through studying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)? For this oil-rich Persian Gulf state has some of the finest universities in the whole Middle East region, with students from all corners of the world taking full advantage of the extensive range of degree courses on offer across a range of disciplines, from engineering, technology and science to business, arts and the media.

Who hasn't heard of fabulous Dubai, the largest city in the UAE? It's a city of around 2 million people with a deserved reputation as a glitzy tourist playground. But it's also a thriving and successful commercial hub where incredible fortunes can be made, and perhaps lost just as easily. It's therefore no surprise to find the universities in Dubai are cutting edge, too, reflecting and serving the needs of the city's rather diverse and cosmopolitan business community. They may not figure prominently in the top tier of world university rankings, but nevertheless Dubai's eclectic mix of higher educational establishments provide the levels of skills and expertise much sought after in today's well connected society.

Europe's biggest street festival took place in west London over the weekend, as more than a million people joined the party at Notting Hill Carnival. 

Usually the revellers will try to keep their distance from the huge numbers of police, but this year, amongst all the normal stories of arrests, a more feel-good video has emerged of police officers having a dance off with members of the public.

Notting Hill Carnival is an annual street party in its 49th year celebrating Caribbean culture, food, music and dance. Due to the huge numbers of people, the party atmosphere and the large amounts of alcohol and drugs knocking around, there were 6,000 police at each day of the event.

Although there were 279 arrests over the two days, there was no real violence and a police statement read that the festival "went very well" and crime was down on previous years. Along side this, an officer called PC Armstrong posted a link on Twitter to the video below with the caption: 'good community relations in my opinion'.

UK universities have seen a record number of non-EU students gaining places on courses through ‘clearing' this year. Meanwhile, EU student clearing numbers are up on last year, but yet to reach their peak in 2011.

‘Clearing' is a process in the UK for students who either didn't get any university offers or who do not get the exam results they need for their offer. Basically it is a system to get applicants without an offer to find a university course that still has spaces available. Students can find a uni clearing list to discover the courses that still have vacancies and then contact the universities directly to try and gain an offer.

Busiest Year Ever

Overall, this has been the busiest year ever for clearing, with over 430,000 students being placed on courses since UK A-level results were released just five days ago. Non-EU international students have mirrored this trend, with clearing numbers increasing by 7% compared to this time last year. Similarly, EU student clearing numbers are up 9% on 2012. You can see the numbers over the last five years in the table below released by university admissions organisation UCAS.

The first official photos of the newest member of the royal family- Prince George- have been released. Taken by Kate's father and the baby's grandfather, Michael Middleton, they show the happy couple alongside their dog Lupo at the Middleton family home in Berkshire.

The photos come a day after Prince William gave his first interview since the birth of his son, revealing that George is a "little bit of a rascal". Speaking to CNN he joked in the same way that any new parent does, about how his son does not "want to go to sleep that much, which is a little bit of a problem".

Describing the emotions he was feeling when first revealing the new-born, William explained that "As any new parent knows, you're only too happy to show off your new child and proclaim that he is the best-looking or the best everything."

"It's nice that people want to see George, so I'm just glad he wasn't screaming his head off the whole way through."

We often discuss the stress and anxiety that comes with A-levels, but today I beg the question: what is their real purpose in everyday teenagers' lives? And why do we fail as a society to see the true meaning that each brown paper envelope holds to each individual?

Take Tom Daley for instance. He is young, talented, sporty and good looking- his rise to fame through his Olympic bronze last summer would suggest his astonishing A* A A, outcome on Thursday was simply a stroke of luck and means nothing to the young star. This argument in retrospect seems quite likely, so why on earth would heart throb Tom Daley need three A-levels at Russell group level to succeed in life? Quite simply, he doesn't.

Now we travel to the other end of the spectrum and in fact the other side of the world when we think of Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup. Two incredible 18-year-old girls not known due to Olympic stardom, but instead as victims in the horrific acid attack that happened last week as the girls continued their charity work at an orphanage in Tanzania. Their results and acceptance to the universities of their choice means the world to these girls, so I again suggest that we as a society fail to see the true meaning of each brown paper envelope to each student.