If I had taken up the great gap year challenge, it would not be the first time a boring British man had paid as little as possible to extract as much as he could from a poor country with interesting individuals, tastes and traditions.

A 21-year-old who dropped out of school at the age of 12 is hoping to change the face of learning by encouraging students to "hack their education" an...

During my travels I met lots of people. To begin with I latched on to anyone who would have me. Anyone, just so I wasn't alone. But gradually, as I meet more and more people, I began to identify what I liked in a person, what made me want to spend time with someone.

Students who take gap years are more likely to smoke weed, "engage in risky behaviour" and earn less than those who go to university immediately after...

More and more people are beginning to despair at the exorbitant costs of volunteering abroad. Is wanting to donate your time and skills to a worthwhile project without paying any more than you have to such a ridiculous idea? After all, you are working for free.

So, you've got your gap year "adventure of a lifetime booked". Well done you. Now comes the stressful part: packing. Forget clothes, shoes, underwe...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain.

Remember, you'll be up against thousands of others who are also pitching their case to the universities, so whatever you write needs to be good.

The classroom is not quiet, the children are not focussed and we don't seem to be following a coherent curriculum, but English is certainly being learnt here.

From next year the price of a yearly university tuition fee rises to a humble £374,000, so every post A-Level student is starting uni this year, therefore abandoning their original plan of working in a dodgy supermarket near their parents' house for six months before travelling to some far off land. Sad isn't it?

Many people take a gap year to 'discover themselves' and find out what they really want to do with their lives. Most people take a gap year to have some fun in the sun with a year of beach parties and cheap booze.

A gap year is just a year-long hedonistic holiday full of beaches, backpacks and time out in Thailand, right? Not anymore. With graduate jobs and univ...