The last couple of weeks’ newspapers have been full of images of beaming young people receiving their school results, and one trend that has continued on from the last few years has been the widening gender gap.

This year saw girls out perform boys in almost every GCSE subject, and continued to increase their dominance in science subjects. Overall 26.5% of girls entries in all subjects were an A* or A grade, compared with just 19.8% of boys’ entries – at 6.7 percentage points this gap is the widest on …

A 2010 report from the Institute of Employment found that four years after getting their degrees, 23% of graduates in the creative sector were doing unpaid work. Since then, as somebody that regularly surfs job sites, it looks to me like full-time unpaid internships have boomed, not easing access to professions as much as replacing entry-level jobs in many companies.

I should warn all the students studying English, Politics and International Studies, that if you have “creative” or “worthy” career aspirations, you could be living with …

With a degree now costing £27,000 (before you’ve even thought about living expenses), education has become a pricey business. There’s never been a better time to be an autodidact, so luckily dozens of places in London run free talks and lectures. Every institution has a public programme and, while galleries such as Tate Modern and the V&A tend to charge, events at universities, charities and alternative spaces are almost always free. If you’ve no idea where to start, check out the programmes at these places:

The …

I am a big believer in Arts degrees. I think they add infinite value to an education that cannot be derived from any other source.

This is not a very popular idea, however. People love to deride Arts degrees, calling them ‘fluff’ degrees, making fun of the people who do them, and love to tout the fact that at the end, you’re not really qualified to do anything.

When I left high-school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. None of the vocational degrees appealed to me whatsoever. So I enrolled in Sydney University’s Arts degree, majored …