Friendly Midlanders:
According to a large Friends Reunited survey, four of the top ten ‘friendliest universities’ are Midlands-based. My two nearest have respectable rankings; Staffordshire is at comfortable number 16 (of 116), and Keele manages 46. Oddly, UCE doesn’t feature at all. Places you probably don’t want to study at are: Salford; Brighton; Plymouth; or just about anywhere in Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, a Royal Bank of Scotland survey today claims 58 per cent of graduates are still supported financially by their parents, three years after graduating. Which isn’t surprising, especially for art & design students. These now make up one-in-16 of all UK students – and yet less than a quarter start work in an art & design field.