Considered views on international education, strategic decision-making and the paths families take, written from fifteen years of advisory practice.
A student at B1 with no exam target will sit through two weeks of what they already know.
Read Secondary EducationFull boarding runs GBP 40,000 to 60,000 after VAT, but the planning number is 25 to 30 per cent higher.
Read ArchitectureARB is removing the two-year minimum for registration. Competency replaces time served, but only once a qualification has transitioned.
Read Choosing a UniversityBath is 9th overall and Queen Mary 40th. In aerospace engineering they are 5th and 15th. One is Russell Group and it is not the one you would guess.
Read Career StrategyA small employer sponsoring one worker pays around GBP 2,000 they cannot recover. Knowing the figure before you raise it separates a conversation from a refusal.
Read Career StrategyA post about getting sponsored by a company with no licence went round LinkedIn. What it leaves out is the part that decides whether anyone else can repeat it.
Read FinlandThe joint application runs 7 to 21 January 2027. What the scholarship lists leave out: no national award exists, and at several universities the first year is not covered.
Read Career StrategyMost rejected applications are not rejected on the CV. What decides the outcome sits in how it was sent, which roles it went to, and who was told beforehand.
Read Professional RegistrationThe Part 1 examination ends in 2026 and Part 1 accreditation is being withdrawn. What the reforms mean for architects qualified outside the UK.
Read PlanningA dependant visa existing is not the same as it working. The three questions that decide whether a country belongs on your shortlist.
Read United KingdomTaught masters students can no longer bring family to the UK. The exceptions, the Graduate Route, and the order these decisions belong in.
Read FundingThree Dutch scholarships get listed together as if they were the same kind of thing. Their deadlines run in the opposite order to their value.
Read FundingFunding eligibility changes with citizenship, degree level and destination. The four funding logics that decide what you can apply for.
Read ChoosingRankings are useful, but only the right ones read the right way. Subject tables, what the surveys measure, and the official data almost nobody checks.
Read PlanningPlacement results are out and the September 2026 door has largely closed. The real calendar, the windows still open, and when to start.
Read ApplicationsMost fail because they describe the applicant instead of arguing the fit. What the word limit really means, and when not to write it yet.
Read Choosing a UniversityA self-selected lobbying association of 24 research-intensive universities, named after the hotel where its founders met. What the label signals, and what it cannot.
Read ScholarshipsA scholarship application goes through two separate evaluations, not one. Most rejections have nothing to do with the strength of the profile.
Read ScholarshipsApplications close 6 October 2026. The full thirteen-month timeline, what you do not need in October, and the two-year return requirement most summaries leave in small print.
Read VisasNo sponsor, no job offer. A dedicated design route opened on 1 July 2026 and architecture has its own. What the criteria actually require, and who does not meet them yet.
Read Student VoiceA sixteen-year-old went to Cambridge to find out whether she wanted to study medicine. An interview about what two weeks can and cannot answer.
Read ScholarshipsIt is a catalogue of separate programmes, each with its own deadline, quota and scholarship cycle. Some intakes carry no scholarship at all, and almost nobody checks.
Read TimingMost families begin the process when they feel ready. By then, the best options are already closed, the most competitive positions already filled, and the strongest scholarship windows already past.
Read Exam StrategyEvery year, genuinely qualified applicants get rejected, and the first thing most of them say is: 'I think my IELTS wasn't high enough.' It is rarely true.
Read Student VoiceShe had a 3.81 GPA, a peer-reviewed publication, and a clear career goal. She was rejected from five top programmes. The problem was never her profile.
Read Test PreparationMost people begin their international education journey by booking an IELTS exam. That instinct, though understandable, reverses the process entirely.
Read On FamiliesFamilies often arrive telling me their child is failing. What I hear is that a child is carrying someone else's definition of success.
Read On AdvisoryMost people arrive expecting me to provide what they have not been able to provide themselves. That expectation is the first thing I have to address.
Read Education & Career StrategyMost families arrive with a destination already in mind. My role is not to validate that destination, it is to ask whether it was ever the right one.
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