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From opera at La Scala to football at the San Siro stadium, from the catwalks of fashion week to the soaring architecture of the cathedral, Milan is crowded with Italian icons. Which makes it even more of a cultural earthquake that one of Italy’s leading universities – the Politecnico di Milano – is going to [...]

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You might not have realised it, but men are being oppressed. In many walks of life, they are routinely discriminated against in ways women are not. So unrecognised is this phenomenon that the mere mention of it will appear laughable to some. That, at least, is the premise of a book by a South African philosophy [...]

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Ocado has said there is not enough IT talent in the UK – and is turning to Poland to fill the gap. The online supermarket plans to hire workers from the central European country to staff a new technical office it is opening there. Its chief executive insisted the Waitrose offshoot had been forced to [...]

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The scale of private school dominance of top jobs in Britain is “morally indefensible”, Education Secretary Michael Gove told a conference of independent school heads today He said it was “remarkable” how many of the positions of wealth, influence, celebrity and power in Britain were held by former independent school pupils. “On the bench of [...]

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A man who moved from Yugoslavia to New York without even knowing English is now graduating with an honors degree from an Ivy league university. Gac Filipaj, 52, first moved to the United States in 1992 when his home country was in the midst of a massive civil war. Upon his move state-side, he started [...]

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An Oxford undergraduate is following in the footsteps of best-selling author JK Rowling – after landing a six-figure book deal with the Harry Potter writer’s publisher. English undergraduate Samantha Shannon, 20, has signed a contract with publishing powerhouse Bloomsbury for the release of her novel, The Bone Season, and two sequels. But she doesn’t plan [...]

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Staying in education longer makes people smarter and results in better memory later in life, it was claimed. But the research – based on an analysis of adults who left school in the 40s – says that extra tuition fails to make people happier. The disclosure comes amid mounting pressure on young people to stay in [...]

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Graduates battling to find jobs and pay off debts are fuelling a boom in ‘bankruptcy light’ orders. The number of debt relief orders has soared by 40 per cent in two years and one in four are granted to those aged between 16 and 24, figures revealed. The orders – dubbed ‘bankruptcy light’ because they [...]

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Staying in education longer does not necessarily make someone happier, according to new research. The UK and German study of people who as teenagers stayed in education until they were 15 in the 1940s did find they had a better memory later in life. But the study in the Economic Journal found no “statistically significant” [...]

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday said an older employee was indirectly discriminated against on the grounds of age when he was denied access to a new top salary band at work, because he did not have a law degree.   The judgment ruled that Terence Homer, an ex-police officer who worked as an adviser on [...]

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Youngsters starting university this year may rack up more than £4,000 in interest before they finish their course. Students starting in the autumn are set to be charged 6.6  per cent interest on their loans, it has been revealed. It means those who borrow the maximum £9,000 would accrue £612 interest in their first year. If [...]

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By any reckoning, TV historian Lucy Worsley has done pretty well for herself. In addition to her day job as chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, the 38-year-old has written three books, made umpteen TV programmes – and has also found love, sharing a London riverside flat with her architect boyfriend.  Just about the only [...]

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One in three parents is sacrificing their own pension pot to help their adult offspring, with some forfeiting £51,000 for every child they carry on supporting in adulthood. Parents are shelling out on children aged over 18 for university, weddings, house deposits, debts and other general expenses – ultimately diverting savings that could go into supporting [...]

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When stand-up comedian Nat Luurtsema hit the ripe old age of 28, she found herself living back in her parents’ house in the Hertfordshire town of Watford. For six long months she languished amid the teen magazines and boy-band posters of her childhood bedroom, pretending to her parents that she didn’t smoke and traipsing round, [...]

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They may be young and gifted but research at the elite institution has found that female undergraduates are shying away from applying to jobs in banking, finance, management consultancy, engineering and resource management.   Partly as a result, starting salaries for women when they graduate are on average £2,000 to £3,000 lower than their male [...]

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No one pretends educating today’s children and young people is easy – that’s why it’s a job for the top performing graduates of today. It’s a profession that will test you to the limit, draw on all your resources and challenge you to the hilt – but you are supported every step of the way. [...]

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You’ll never find a queue for the ladies’ at a technology conference, says Cary Marsh, who runs a software company. “As a technology entrepreneur, I often find myself at conferences where I’m one of only a handful of women among hundreds of men.” It’s concerning not only because women are missing out on a dynamic [...]

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Graduates from top universities would get financial incentives to opt for careers in engineering and manufacturing instead of the City, under plans being considered by Vince Cable. The Business Secretary is studying proposals for “Manufacturing Technology Scholarships” to be offered to engineering students at Oxbridge and other leading universities. The plans will be set out on [...]

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An “old school tie” network that aims to get London state school students into good careers has been so successful it will roll out across the country. Future First, which sets up alumni groups in schools in the capital, has been given a £250,000 government grant to expand its scheme. The social enterprise arranges for [...]

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An “old school tie” network that aims to get London state school students into good careers has been so successful it will roll out across the country. Future First, which sets up alumni groups in schools in the capital, has been given a £250,000 government grant to expand its scheme. The social enterprise arranges for [...]

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US President Barack Obama wrote with pride of his Kenyan father’s studies in the US in his memoir Dream From My Father. He wrote how he had been “selected by Kenyan leaders and American sponsors to attend a university in the United States joining the first large wave of Africans to be sent forth to master [...]

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Did you hear about the girl who did a degree in ballet? She got a tutu. Rubbish jokes aside, many students are deeply troubled by the prospect of discovering, at the end of their final year, that they’ve been accorded a 2:2. And that’s mostly because of reports that “around three-quarters of large graduate employers [...]

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Thousands of graduates face worse starting salaries this summer than if they had left university almost 10 years ago, new figures show. The cost of living has outpaced typical graduate wages so much that salaries are expected to fall this year to their lowest level in real terms since 2003, the report from Incomes Data [...]

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Most fashion students can only dream of getting their work in stores across Britain at the age of 22, but when it happened to Nicola Kirkbride it wasn’t quite what she had hoped. She was shocked to discover a photograph of her face had been lifted from her fashion blog and placed on the front [...]

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Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, had intended to introduce an early repayment penalty which would have cost graduates thousands of pounds if they cleared their debts within 30 years of leaving university. The Prime Minister is understood to have dropped the scheme earlier this week amid warnings that it would be unfair on the hundreds [...]

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Whether Michael Wilshaw turns out to be an inspired and inspiring head of Ofsted or yet another small-minded autocrat remains to be seen, but Will Hutton (“Teachers, stop being so defensive. It’s time to embrace the no-excuses culture”, Comment) is right to urge teachers at every level to embrace the craft and skills that could [...]

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For the first time the institution has published detailed data about how its students are faring six months after graduation. The study provides a snapshot of the desperate employment market and shows that while many secured jobs as doctors, bankers or management consultants, others are struggling to get their foot on the career ladder. Of [...]

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Last week the Mail Online revealed how one of Bristol’s most expensive homes – with a price tag of £2.25m – had been invaded by squatters. Here Robert Hardman reveals what life is now like inside the grade II-listed building. How very inconsiderate of the owners to empty the palatial indoor swimming pool before vacating [...]

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Tesco has come under increasing pressure from customers to stop participating in government unemployment schemes which allow the company to take on jobseekers to stack and clean shelves for up to eight weeks without paying them. After a link to a job centre advert was posted on Twitter on Wednesday evening, appearing to show that [...]

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Plans to impose penalties on students who pay off university loans early are being ditched, the Government is expected to announce next week. Ministers were considering introducing annual charges of around 5% on payments above a certain limit to prevent wealthier students avoiding interest charges on the new standard 30-year repayment plans. The proposals were [...]

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Despite the statistics, even graduates from Britain’s top universities face a battle to land any job, let alone the one they want. They often find themselves trapped in volunteer work, burdened with the weight of their student loan. Where are they now? Read the first article in this series here. In the second of three [...]

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Kate Brodock is executive director of digital and social media at Syracuse University, where she leads efforts in the space. Connect with her on Twitter at @just_kate and @othersidegroup. If you’re a Generation X-er or older, you likely use social media to cut it in the real world. You may also use social networks for [...]

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Menakaya, who graduated from Brunel University with a First in Economics and Business Science, was part of a gang of nine who targeted Rainham Goldmine Jewellers in Essex on August 9. Dressed in dark clothing and balaclavas and armed with bricks, the group got into two cars and drove to the shop after Menakaya received [...]

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The idea of student debt mushrooming from September onwards has whipped everyone into a funding frenzy. There’s no denying that bumper tuition fees, up to a maximum of £9,000 a year, looks overwhelming compared to the £3,375 that students are currently paying. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean everyone should dodge universities as if [...]

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Matthew Cooksey from Chessington, Kingston-upon-Thames, has been living at home since graduating, but is now keen to build up funds so he can move into his own place. The 24-year-old left Aberystwyth university last year with a 2:1 in international politics, and is currently working as an operations assistant in a small company of six [...]

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One in three top companies left graduate jobs unfilled last year amid complaints about the quality of recruits, a report warns today. Rising numbers of employers failed to meet recruitment targets, citing university-leavers’ skills as a problem. The shortfall comes despite rising unemployment and the fact that it is estimated there are at least 48 [...]

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Calling for a radical change of culture among the country’s university students, Michel Martone, the deputy welfare minister, said: “Anyone who hasn’t graduated by the age of 28 is a loser.” Unlike in Britain, where degrees take three or four years to complete, in Italy students have an unlimited period of time in which to [...]

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Some are unable to spell words such as ‘erupt’ or ‘across’ correctly and give answers that show a “worrying degree of inaccuracy,” according to examiners’ reports seen by the Daily Telegraph. Academics said a culture of box-ticking at A-level had left students with poor general knowledge and unable to think for themselves. One English examiner [...]

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With her face grimacing in unbearable discomfort, this is the moment a trainee bodyguard has a bottle smashed over her head. Amazingly, the recruit has to stand there and take it if she wants to qualify as one of China’s first female bodyguards. The training session, which took place in Beijing, involved 20 women, most [...]

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Sky-high tuition loans are turning more college-aged girls to the internet in hopes of wrangling in a wealthy suitor through an online dating service since it appears to be more profitable than an extra shift at the local coffee shop. One such woman, Christine Morris, added herself onto a site called SeekingArrangement.com in hopes of [...]

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The number of students awarded first-class degrees has more than doubled over the last decade. A record one in six graduates obtained the top qualification last year, prompting fresh concerns about grade inflation and the value of degrees. One expert says that degree classifications are now ‘almost meaningless’. Welcome news: The number of graduates gaining [...]

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A survey among 1,000 firms by recruitment giant Adecco found that over half argued that university graduates had unrealistic expectations of working life and one in three believed that the education system was failing to equip young people with the skills required by British businesses. Adecco called on the education system, employers and the Government [...]

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Graduates without work experience stand little chance of securing a job this year despite a rise in vacancies, research suggests. More than one-third of the graduate vacancies available are expected to be taken by people who have already worked for a firm while they were studying, a report by High Fliers Research has found. The [...]

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Job hunters seeking work at 100 of Britain’s biggest firms may be asked to avoid listing their school on application forms under rules to end the influence of the old boy network. The blue chip companies – which  employ two million staff – have signed up to a voluntary code under which application forms will [...]

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A graduate made to work for her jobless benefits as a shelf stacker in Poundland is taking legal action against the Government under the Human Rights Act. Cait Reilly, who studied geology at university, had been unable to find a job in her subject area and was claiming unemployment benefit while volunteering in a museum [...]

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More than a third of jobs for new graduates are taken by people who have already had work experience with that employer, according to the latest update on the graduate jobs market. The report from High Fliers Research shows that employers are recruiting more graduates – but there are record numbers of graduates chasing jobs. [...]

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One in three applications for this year’s graduate vacancies are from students who left higher education in 2011 or earlier as they struggle to find work, a new report warned today. And almost half of applicants for retail and public sector roles in 2012 are past graduates, according to the annual study from High Fliers, [...]

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The class of 2012 is set for further misery as a third of applications for graduate posts have come already from those who left university last summer or earlier, the study from High Fliers Research showed. A fifth of employers said application levels had soared by at least 25pc, the research revealed. However, the number [...]

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Ministers told minimum wage should be paid as placements favour children of rich parents who can afford work without pay Scores of MPs, from millionaire Tory cabinet members to Labour backbenchers, may have broken minimum wage law by taking on unpaid interns, according to legal advice to ministers. A combination of changes to parliamentary expenses [...]

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Rap duo Rizzle Kicks became the latest Brit School graduates to score a top 10 album at the weekend when Stereo Typical entered the chart at nine. But do the school’s alumni have an unfair advantage over other acts?

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