What this proposal really shows is that the matter of achievement is associated only with the acquirement of the higher grades and not when a student is awarded with a grade that corresponds with their potential and effort.

A revolution has happened and over the last decade increasingly many undergraduates want something different. We want to start our own businesses - inevitably small at first, but hopefully large one day.

Many people question an 'appropriate' time to take a gap year, often worrying that they've missed the opportunity or that that they are unable to commit to a full year. There is however, no right or wrong time to take a gap year, and no traditional length of time to travel for.

Residents at Woodland Court UNITE student accommodation have been told they must vacate their rooms during summer despite holding a signed tenancy contract to have the room until September. A petition has been launched in support of students wishing to stay in their rooms.

Youth unemployment is a tragic reality whatever the circumstance, but there is something especially unsavoury about young people who have been sold on the graduate life ideal, only to end up without a job and in debt. The mismarketing of higher education is one of the least commented-upon scandals of our time.

Well, I've reached the end of the semester and the end of my academic year at Washington College. It's already time for final exams, and with most of campus permanently set up in the library and cramming their brains full of facts, the 2012-13 academic year is officially in its last week.

The next few weeks will be pivotal for the future of student activism within QUBSU, Belfast, ULU and London. We will not let them abolish our unions, nor will we let them sell our unions bit by bit to private companies, which may as well be the same thing.

We are in the final few weeks of the University term and for many this will mean one thing, exams. But aside from being inundated with revision tips and de-stressing secrets (which are all very helpful and important, don't get me wrong) there are a few other things you should be looking into before you leave for summer, particularly if you are in your final year.

If there is one measure that will tell us that the RCOT has been a success in rebuilding the self confidence of teachers (other than hitting ambitious levels of pupil achievement), it will be in ending the appalling drop out rate among teachers from the profession.

It upsets me when I hear statistics about how many young people are out of work - almost a million 16 to 25 year olds if you didn't know. And it's not just moral outrage. Yes, the figure is staggering and unacceptable. But what really bothers me is a nagging feeling that the longer this huge number is tossed around, the more normal it will seem - like part of the landscape.

Universities recognise that today's graduates need multiple strings to their bows and students are now being offered the opportunity to take part in a range of activities on university campuses and in the local community to enable them to further develop key transferable skills.