This week, NUS and CBI jointly launched a guide to employability skills. The publication, Working Towards Your Future, is definitely worth a download.

As the NUS/CBI guide was released, engineering consultancy, Atkins, called on universities to help students more with employability skills. Good timing, eh?

In the US, there’s a lot of talk about bubbles in higher education. Is it worth studying for a degree? Is HE too expensive now? Weighing in on the debate are The Economist, Slate, and NPR. Will the UK ever suffer from ‘bubble’ worries?

A student at LSE argues that fees of £8,000 may not be as helpful to disadvantaged students as a £9,000 pricetag. Sound like a strange argument? Then read on!

Students are rushing to get into investment banking in the hope of a big salary, according to High Fliers Research. They also report that confidence in the graduate job market has improved and that over a third of finalists made early job applications. Graduate applications in the public sector has seen a drop, however.

With improved confidence comes bigger expectations. For the first time in three years, the expected (hoped for) starting salary has increased to an average of £22,600. Students expect to be earning nearly £40k after five years and over %15 interviewed expect a salary of more than £100,000 by the age of 30! Perhaps we’ll see some of them starring in the apprentice in the coming years…

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• How to speak persuasively (Scientific American) – Three-and-a-half words per second. And some pauses. Pitch is up to you.
• Anatomy of an A+: A Look Inside the Process of One of the World’s Most Efficient Studiers (Study Hacks)
• Course reps: a 21st century idea (Mr Morwoo)
• Can universities help cultivate a culture of fair internships? (Guardian)
• Don’t Look to the Ivy League (London Review of Books) – A look at why higher education in England and the UK is very different to that in the USA.