You are what you see ...

Research undertaken by Reed.co.uk amongst 18-34yr olds found that 1 in 4 admitted that TV has influenced their career choices. The Apprentice was the top TV programme to influence careers, followed by Dragons’ Den, and then CSI and Law & Order. Love Island was seen as helping to inspire careers in fitness and sales thanks to an onscreen gym ...

Analysis of the benefits of a Degree

Analysis of data from 2015-16 has revealed some startling facts about the cost-benefits of going to university:

• 18-25% of undergraduates were studying for degrees which fail to deliver a lifetime-earnings premium that justifies the average student debt, from tuition fees and maintenance loans, of £50,000.
• 40% of undergraduates were enrolled in courses that led to median earnings below the student-loan repayment threshold of £25,000, after five years.
• 10% were enrolled in courses with median earnings below £25,000 ten years after graduation - representing 134,000 students every year who won't be paying back anything ten years after graduating yet who will have accumulated significant interest.
• 20% would be no better off five years after graduating than if they had chosen to take a non-university route, such as an Apprenticeship.

It could be argued that higher education and the "university experience" are a reward in themselves, beyond income, but ...

FBI tactics to address essay cheating

Now software is being developed using ‘forensic linguistics’, which analyses the composition of a document including vocabulary, punctuation and format. It is a technique used by the FBI to create profiles of criminal suspects. At the moment it is not illegal to set up a company writing essays, dissertations or other assignments for students. The companies simply post a disclaimer telling students their products are intended for reference or a guide. Their marketing tactics, emailing and messaging students directly, indicate just how lucrative the business is. As well as widespread use of sponsorship of young "vloggers" and other social influencers, some are also going on to city centre campuses with leaflets that imply they are from student support services. [source:GTAssociates]

Graduate earnings

With more and more concerns being reported in the media that some graduate career pathways may not result in incomes which repay the costs of the degree course, the i newspaper has recently published a table of earnings by degrees: