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Last week, I took a long-haul British Airways flight from Heathrow’s Terminal Five. Other frequent flyers may be aware that the only airlines serving this particular terminal are Iberia and British Airways. Now, to make this relevant, I must explain that I am a recent smoking veteran.

I am fortunate enough to live very nearby a vendor that sells Gamucci Electronic Cigarettes at far below their usual retail price, and the idea one day struck me to give them a try. Within a week, I had cut down on my tobacco intake significantly, and have tapered my use to only social situations over the last month, which is a great personal victory for a pack-a-day smoker of three years.

Before my flight, I ran over British Airways’s regulations to find any explicit mention of electronic cigarettes, of which there were absolutely none. I made my way to Lewisham, where I (rather ambitiously) purchased three nicotine free cartridges for my Gamucci battery, charged the cigarette and packed my bags. When I arrived at Terminal Five, I began to feel anxious about the lack of nicotine that I may have to endure for the ten hour flight, and popped over to WH Smith to buy myself a SKYCIG, containing the equivalent nicotine of 30 cigarettes.

Erik Redli is a university graduate from Slovakia who is currently living in London. Each week he gives his view on the events of the last seven days. This week, he looks at migration policy, binge drinking and feminism.

Free Online Educational Courses

A new craze is sweeping education, with free online educational courses called MOOCS growing in popularity. 

"Many graduates boast about their university degree certificate. But most employers look at your skills and what the prospective employee can bring to the company. If you earn money, no one will dig into where you learnt your skills. Therefore the main asset of education should be the skills and knowledge, not the piece of paper.

I think these online courses hit on the fact that a degree does not automatically stand for knowledge. For example, I completed two courses recently. Although I did not earn the certificates (the maths too difficult for me), I learned a lot of new things that I have already used in my life and job. This makes for a good excuse for the large percentage of students who do not complete their courses. They took what they needed and left the certificates for the academics.

The UK's education sector is extremely welcoming to foreign students, with universities and colleges across the country boasting a healthy proportion of students from overseas. Whether students are looking to come to the UK to study for the first time, or are looking to continue with current or previous studies, there is a wide variety of options open to those from overseas. Here, we take a look at a small number of these options, looking at both academic and vocational opportunities.

Law conversion courses

The choice to work on a law conversion course is a popular one for graduates. While not everybody is keen to enter the world of law at undergraduate level, it often appears as a far more attractive option post-graduation.

The great news is that students are accepted on to law conversion courses from a variety of subjects. Typically the candidate will have experience of study in an area which exemplifies a strong grasp of the English language and good argumentative skills. Evidence of elective courses in legal matters will be to your advantage but will by no means be seen as necessary.

Now that everyone's enjoyed the Easter break, it's unfortunately time to get back to the worries of money and work. We;ve got some cracking jobs this week, so whether you're looking for part-time, full time or intern work, we've got all the best new jobs on the market. Simply browse through the jobs below to find what you're looking for, or search our entire database.  

Part-Time Jobs

A much-awaited album was set to be released in 2012: The xx's second studio record, called ‘Coexist'. It carried big expectations following their very successful debut album ‘XX' (2009), which brought fresh air to the alternative music scene and influenced many artists to come (like Alt-J, whose own album review you can read here).

The band's trademark playing style is definitely minimalist: Jamie Smith & co managed with just a few instruments and simple electronic beats to create a great chill-out atmosphere in each of their old tracks, using low-tone vocals which gave the listener many reasons to keep thinking, sometimes for hours, about the lyrics and the whole meaning of the songs.

However, it seems that with ‘Coexist' this approach has become a little bit excessive, and their melodies are not as interesting as they were.

Beats sometimes keep on playing for minutes without any real aim, without any really bright spark. The vocals do not provide any further interest - making it very difficult to get the messages of many songs, which remain completely hidden and leave the listener with some reasonable doubts ('Tides', ‘Reunion', ‘Our Song').