The BBC reports that: “As of January 22, the number of UK-based applicants, 499,451, was up 22.1%, while overseas applications rose 28.7% to 71,105. And more would-be students may yet apply.” This is just the latest of several years of increases.

The BBC further reports that the Russell Group–a consortium of the most competitive universities–experienced increases [...]

Firstly sad news from the UK:
Those cutting places include the London School of Economics, Essex and Edinburgh University, while universities freezing numbers include Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, King’s College London, Imperial College London and Warwick.
The biggest cut, however, is at Edinburgh — it is reducing its 2010 intake by 1,300 places, nearly a third of the total….Among [...]

Students applying to the UK often scoff at their classmates who have to take the SAT in order to apply to college. WHile their carefree days are numbered as 1 in 5 UK universities now require entrance tests:
Researchers said there were 84 different tests against 67 recorded a year earlier, although it still only dictated [...]

The UK and Australia provde direct entry to a major unlike say the USA, Canada and Scotland (although you can certainly start building your major immediately). One often wonders which method is better. I have always argue it depends on the student. But a new study actually suggest that committing too soon is not a [...]

This year’s Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings sees the slight erosion of US supremacy in the number of institutions in the top 200 as the table illustrates:

National honours: most institutions in top 200

2008
2009

Country
Region
200
200

US
North America
58
54

UK
Europe
29
29

Canada
North America
12
11

Japan
Asia
10
11

Netherlands
Europe
11
11

Germany
Europe
11
10

Australia
Australasia
9
9

Switzerland
Europe
7
7

China
Asia
6
6

Belgium
Europe
5
5

Hong Kong
Asia
4
5

Sweden
Europe
4
5

France
Europe
4
4

South Korea
Asia
3
4

Denmark
Europe
3
3

Israel
Asia
3
3

New Zealand
Australasia
3
3

India
Asia
2
2

Ireland
Europe
2
2

Norway
Europe
1
2

Russia
Europe
1
2

Singapore
Asia
2
2

At the same time, The UK has ascended to the top of the [...]

The Times not only reports on that Oxford has released Interview questions for the first time ever, but also provides them with commentary:
Subject: Geography
Interviewer: Lorraine Wild, St Hilda’s College
Q: If I were to visit the area where you live, what would I be interested in?
Lorraine Wild: ‘The question gives candidates an opportunity to apply concepts from their [...]

One of the great universities in the world is Oxford University in the UK. Of course applying to Oxford feels intimidating and very different than the US colleges. Fortunetly, OXford has a great series of podcasts to help you:

First episode - Is Oxford for me?

Download entire episode - 25 mins 50 secs (23.6MB)
More info about [...]

I have been tracking universities use of Youtube for some time. Youtube announced that they 45 new Universities, including Cambridge University, Open University, Bocconi University and Open University of Catalonia housed in their Youtube EDU channel, making 200 universities serving up 40,000 videos in various categories:

Business
Education
Engineering
Fine Arts & Design
Health & Medicine
History
Humanities
Journalism & Media
Law
Literature
Mathematics
Science
Social Science

Stanford [...]

even if they don’t. “With the profusion of companies and Web sites offering to help draft applicants’ personal statements for a fee, no admissions tutor believes them to be the sole work of the applicant anymore,” Geoff Parks was quoted as saying in both The Times and The Guardian. “We certainly don’t assign any marks [...]

Just had to post the video from the Daily show that explores The Harvard Pledge:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c