It is a fact that one of the aspects of choosing to go to university is unfortunately acquiring some student loan debt.
So, being a student it is useful to come up with short-term financial goals that you need to look after. If you know the basics of personal finance management, then you would also know that there are some other financial goals that you should focus on while studying! But how to set goals when Covid-19 is still hanging around? Does this have any effect on your financial goals? Let’s find out in the discussion.
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Happy New Year! 2021, maybe a time to finish that UCAS if you haven’t already and hopefully start receiving some offers. If you haven’t received any, don’t worry, there’s some tips for that later on in the blog. I’ll also talk a bit about the very recent situation, which has caused quite a bit of confusion, the cancellation of GCSEs and A-Levels.
The likelihood is that your uni application is done and dusted. In which case… well done! The UCAS process is hard work, let alone doing it during a global pandemic. Put on top of that all the frustrations caused by multiple lockdowns and you’ve definitely got something to be proud of. I’m sure you get told time and time again, but it has been a mentally and emotionally challenging time so being proud of what you have achieved so far, however small, is the least you can do for yourself. Yes, Shakespeare wrote an entire play during his lockdown in the plague, but, unfortunately, we can’t all be a world famous playwright… so writing a personal statement and sending it off to universities is a perfectly good achievement. If you've decided you want to go to uni, then we're going to go ahead and assume you're feeling pretty smug and have already submitted your application. If you haven't, then you've got about four weeks till the January 15th deadline.
So between now and then, stop dreaming of a vaccine Christmas and dream instead about where your chosen degree might take you. It’s been an exhaustingly long term as we trudge towards the Christmas holidays. If the sun doesn’t wake you up and disappears before you arrive home, at least the blindingly bright red nose of Rudolph on your window will bring some light. Especially if you’ve had to isolate lately, the days may seem to blur tediously together like a tangle of Christmas lights: checking emails for ucas offers, coursework, finding yourself on tiktok, work, having a nap that lasted too long…
To put it simply, things are getting a bit dull. In this blog, I’ll be talking about how we can productively lift our spirits by discovering some new interests. ‘Tis the season of sharing and goodwill! Time seems to be as short as the fading sunlight, but luckily, there’s still 24 hours in a day. We can still make the most of it and break this cycle of yawns and staring at the ceiling. Whilst school teaches us that our aim should be to productively get school work done, this is far from the truth. Yes, it is about being efficient at completing tasks, but productivity is not always about academic work. Researching and supporting a cause that matters to you this Xmas not only helps you. It can massively help others.
Supporting causes can help you work out what you want from life. Careers in the 21st century, when we are likely to work for longer than ever (and for different companies), will be based much more on company values and ethics than older generations - who tended to focus on a paternal "you'll move up through the ranks from apprentice to retirement" arm around the metaphorical shoulder, driven by financial security first, a job-for-life second, and perhaps striking lucky and enjoying your career third. Younger people, via social media, are much more aware of global issues and therefore how they want to fit into them (and ideally solve or improve them). As (a very different) Christmas approaches this year, it's a great time to think about our relationship to 'things'. The presents we choose to buy for loved ones and friends tells us more about our own relationship to consumerism (and money) than we realise...
Since money is tight this year, and budgets are stretched, can we all fuel our creativity and give a little more than physical presents this Christmas? Can we make the act of giving a more wise and inventive one? With presents that fulfill more than the physical item itself and instead do good for the planet, bring us closer together in an experience, or perhaps give a percentage of each sale to a charity you (and your loved ones) believe in? And surely, above all, turning our phones off and being truly present with those we care about is the best thing we can give in these strange bubble-like times? If your plan for next year is university then you’re already submitted your application, right? If not, then get a move on. The UCAS deadline (January 15th) may be the official cut-off, but a lot of places will have been filled already. We know how fab you are, but that doesn’t mean the unis are holding a space specially for you. Get your application in before the end of this month.
The pandemic might have changed your plans about going to university. Perhaps you’ve already deferred for a year or because of everything going on you may have already decided that uni isn’t the right path for you in 2021, but you’ll give it a go in 2022. If that’s the case, don’t let your gap year go by, in the blink of an eye, leaving you feeling unfulfilled and still not ready for uni. In days pre-covid (remember those?) a gap year often meant jetting off in a plane with a backpack and spending a couple of months in a new country. However we don’t know when that’s going to be a realistic option. So maybe it's time to think a little closer to home during your gap year. Here are a few ideas to get started: It feels like a lifetime has passed since last month’s blog. And in that month, I’m sure many have had to undertake that dreaded two week isolation period… including me. Before the half term and even now, many schools and colleges have been sending pupils or even whole year groups home… including mine.
Well, lucky for you, I’ve got some first hand tips on how to mentally cope with (unfortunately, but inevitably) working from home. Thanks to the Internet and social media that we have today, many people start to run personal blogs, where they share useful information with their followers or just talk about their lives. The Internet and social media give us a chance to promote our products and reach out to a larger number of customers. One of the greatest things about blogging is that you can work from home and dedicate all your time and effort to the work you enjoy the most.
Covid casts a long shadow over lives. As we are discovering, the condition can persist for months or, as we may yet discover, possibly years. It also casts a shadow of grief over those who have lost – or will lose – those they love. But even those who, thankfully, have never been infected may yet find their lives have been blighted for years or even decades by this pandemic’s other long-term wasting effects.
The labour market has rarely looked worse for young people and emerging from education into a recession can handicap a whole career. At first there are no jobs and, by the time there are, there’s another generation coming into bloom, fresh out of school or university, unwilted by months or years of unemployment. We all knew that going into school after a six month break would not look normal. Schools and teachers are all doing their best to make things run smoothly, even when there’s an imminent risk of a class being randomly eliminated. It’s like coronavirus is playing a pac-man video game to destroy the education system completely. With weapons of hand sanitisers and one way systems, it looks like schools are putting up a good fight.
Although you may not have had to self- isolate at home, the thought doesn’t seem as scary as before. Hopefully, by now, you have seen many procedures to make a potential quarantine at home easier. Luckily technology has rapidly advanced from the last time schools have had to close a century ago. It’s promising to see an abundance of lesson resources to help students who are self-isolating readily available online if needs be. This can be beneficial even if you are not working from home, for example, lesson powerpoint being uploaded onto your online portal for use in your revision. A recent BBC study found that the least likely group to go to university is currently white males from low-income families. Only 26% of students from low-income backgrounds have gone on to higher education this year, only half of them were white British males.
October 15th is the deadline for applications to Oxford, Cambridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses. This is not a seriously-ill-line or near-death-line, it is a deadline.
If you miss it, you'll have to wait a year to apply again. If you’re thinking about applying to these courses I’m sure you’re already done most of the legwork for your application. If you're not ready yet, then switch off your phone, dust off your laptop and let your mum know she’s on coffee duty for the next 24 hours solid You'd be forgiven for thinking that with around a year to go until your first application deadline looms, you've got time to perfect your Beyonce dance routine. While this is a perfectly legitimate leisure activity and will look fierce when you whip it out at parties, choosing a uni is much easier if you take the time to do it right
We know that making real-life decisions and the whole UCAS commotion is basically a year away, but before you know it these choices will be getting all up in your face and demanding attention. Then there's all the exams, revision, coursework, birthdays/bar mitzvahs/weddings and cat gifs... it's never too soon to get focused.
Besides, what's sixth form all about anyway? If you can work out where it's heading, it gives the next two years more purpose, more focus — perhaps even more fun and success. What we're saying is that, however early it seems, now's a great time to be thinking about two of the big questions: what do you want to study and where do you want to study it If you’re thinking of going to uni in September 2021 but you haven’t thought about which unis you're going to apply to yet: You’d better level up and get going.
You’ve got until mid-January to complete your application for most courses, but Oxbridge, medicine and veterinary courses have deadlines that are less than a month away (October 15th). This year has drove us inside our homes more than ever. We’ve all taken up a number of things to try and fill our times the best we can. From all becoming master bakers, taking our chance at cutting hair or finally picking up and learning how to play the recorder.
One of the saving graces of the lockdown was how technology allowed us to stay connected to our friends and family, but our relationship with technology has to be kept under control otherwise it has the potential to spiral into something that can have detrimental effects on our mental health. Is it time to start thinking about which university you might want to go to?
Well fear no more! Over the past few months we’ve had a go at making a handy map for you that outlines as many universities in the UK that we could throw our hat at. Click here to have a look at the list of universities on offer with links to their location, websites and a little of our honest Push info too. If you’re part of a university or college that isn’t on the map and would like to be included. Please email at aron@push.co.uk and we can get it added to the map. Work experience: cancelled. Taster days: cancelled. University open days, you guessed it... cancelled.
Sinking into the sofa, many have felt like the whole of higher education is getting cancelled. Six months into lockdown, however, you start to realise that the world is actually at the tip of your fingers. We are the generation of technology. The generation of endless screening. Even though work experience for many is cancelled, when a global pandemic forces us indoors, we’ve never felt more at home. When distance learning is necessary, many students and teachers consider it a challenge. In reality, it can be a very useful tool which can provide students from all over the world with the chance to learn. Whether they don’t have access to education otherwise or a worldwide pandemic has taken place, distance learning can become a great alternative for everyone.
In order to make it effective, though, teachers are not the only ones that need to find ways to keep it interesting. Students should also find ways to make distance learning more interesting in order to get something from it. Here are some tips to help you achieve just that. Fair Access Coalition and the Fair Education Alliance: Statement regarding A-level grade allocations14/8/2020 A group of leading educational access charities and not-for profit organisations is calling for the government to take action to ensure that young people from less advantaged backgrounds do not face additional barriers in accessing further study, training and employment opportunities, following the allocation of A-level grades this year.
We recognise that the circumstances surrounding this year’s A-levels made any ideal outcome impossible, but it is clear that – in a significant number of cases – individual students have been left with their future plans in disarray. What’s more concerning is that many of these students are from the least advantaged backgrounds. These are the young people who already face the biggest barriers in accessing higher education; barriers that have been compounded during lockdown. Every hour, we are encountering more young people whose plans for university, apprenticeships or jobs have been seriously affected because they were statistical exceptions. We note that Ofqual's Technical Report details that the A/A* attainment gap between FSM and non-FSM students increased from 6.1% in 2019 to 7.1% in 2020, reversing progress made the prior year. Furthermore, independent schools saw a 4.7 percentage point increase in A/A* grades compared to just 0.3pp at Sixth Form/FE/Tertiary colleges. As coalitions, working collaboratively to tackle educational inequality, our priority is to focus on how we, and the government, can best support young people. We call upon the government to ensure that no student, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, has their opportunity of work, training or study compromised by being graded unfairly by an algorithm. We urge the government to do this by:
Signatories Nathan Samson, CEO, The Access Project, nathan@theaccessproject.org.uk Anne-Marie Canning MBE, CEO, The Brilliant Club, amc@thebrilliantclub.org Laura Gray, CEO, Brightside, laura.gray@brightside.org.uk Sam Holmes, CEO, Causeway Education, sam.holmes@causeway.education Maria Neophytou, Interim CEO, Impetus-PEF, maria.neophytou@impetus.org.uk Rachel Carr OBE, CEO, IntoUniversity, rachel@intouniversity.org Johnny Rich, CEO, Push, johnny@push.co.uk John Craven, CEO, upReach, john@upreach.org.uk Rae Tooth, CEO, Villiers Park Education Trust, rae.tooth@villierspark.org.uk. Sam Butters and Gina Cicerone, Co-CEOs, Fair Education Alliance, gcicerone@faireducation.org.uk. On social media: #coalitionforfairness "The standard of the delivery (online) was excellent...pass on my regards and thanks to @AronTennant @mojtaylor. It was definitely useful and I think it will have hit on a number of different levels from being informative of what opportunities they have around them to a more personal level of who they are and can be. It was a pleasure to be part of." - Mike, Bedlington School
Are you heading to university? I'm sure you have a few questions about what awaits you... Push has been flexing our broadband muscles (it's either that or real running) with a host of interactive online sessions for students, over summer term - to 1,000s of young people across the UK. If you missed out, then chill (we mean it, it's baking out there). We've selected some of the most interesting (and useful) questions we've been asked by year 11-13s, regarding the HE Experience... "The standard of the delivery (online) was excellent...pass on my regards and thanks to @AronTennant @mojtaylor. It was definitely useful and I think it will have hit on a number of different levels from being informative of what opportunities they have around them to a more personal level of who they are and can be. It was a pleasure to be part of." - Mike, Bedlington School
Are you thinking of doing a degree? Well the summer is a great time begin researching courses and universities. Push has been flexing our broadband muscles (it's either that or real running) with a host of interactive online sessions for students, over summer term - to 1,000s of young people across the UK. If you missed out, then chill (we mean it, it's baking out there). We've selected some of the most interesting (and useful) questions we've been asked by year 11-13s, on applying for a degree... Finally, it’s time to relax. Have a couple of weeks off from the hard work you’ve been doing this year in unexpected circumstances. You've all done brilliantly everything considered!
But you don’t want to sit and let your summer pass you by without being productive.. So what can you really do now to maximise your summer? Be that if you're thinking about university, an apprenticeship or a job. August brings along results day but this year…it’s all different.
Exams were cancelled due to the pandemic and now grades have been calculated differently, it’s created a lot more of uncertainty and anxiety about getting into your dream universities. You might feel a little hard done by that you haven’t had the chance to stake your claim for a place at the university you wanted and that you’ve lost control over your future a little. But don’t worry, that’s not the case. Experts at a number of universities have all agreed that students have “never had more power to talk their way into a top university, even if they didn’t get the grades” But how? |
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