Teachers’ Guide to University – key university facts for school staff in one brochure

The Teachers’ Guide to University 2026 will help you support your students to make an informed choice about university. It includes articles to guide them in deciding whether university is right for them, what they should study, and where they should study it. Although titled Teachers’, the guide is equally valuable for careers advisers, support staff, and senior leaders.

Contributions have been provided by over 80 university representatives from across the UK, along with expert voices from outside the sector, such as educator and TV personality Baasit Siddiqui. The guide is supported by HELOA, a membership group for university advisers.

It is divided into sections to support you and your students through every stage of the university journey. Topics include researching options, attending events, financing studies, applying, and preparing for university life.

This year, mindful of the cost-of-living crisis, several articles are designed to help your students overcome financial difficulty. You’ll learn how to explore universities on a budget, secure "free money" to fund their student experience, manage finances at university, secure a part-time job, and consider more affordable options like studying online.

The Teacher’s Guide is an invaluable resource for teachers and advisers across the UK because it really is a one-stop shop for some of that key information needed. With new students each year to support and changes to keep abreast of, the UniTasterDays team do an amazing job of canvassing the higher education sector for the best bits of information, advice and guidance that you need for the upcoming year.

HELOA are proud to support such a fantastic resource and a massive thank you to all of our members who have contributed either for the first time or again. Whilst many may see universities as competitors, we will always aim to ensure that students can make an informed choice about higher education utilising all resources available to them, especially their trusted teachers and advisers!

Reena Kaur

HELOA UK Chair

The Career Development Institute is delighted to support the 2026 UniTasterDays Teachers’ Guide to University.

The world of work is increasingly dynamic and the pathways to gain the skills needed to progress in your career can appear confusing and complex, so high quality careers education, information, advice and guidance is critical in helping young people decide on the next stage of their education and training. University continues to be one of the key pathways to gaining those skills and this guide from UniTasterDays offers fantastic support to schools and colleges in strengthening their university links.

David Morgan

Chief Executive, The Career Development Institute

Decisions about studying at University are ever more critical, given the financial as well as the personal investment students are required to make. Teachers and Year Tutors are a vital source of information and advice for young people and the Teachers’ Guide to University brochure is a valuable resource in ensuring students are well equipped for their choice of where and what to study.

Katharine Horler OBE

Executive Director, Careers England

The UniTasterDays Teachers’ Guide to University is a perfect tool for teachers advising their pupils on discovering, deciding, applying and transitioning to Higher Education study, and it gets better every year. Gets better in the detail, gets better in being bang up to date, gets better in highlighting emerging trends and recent changes, gets better in giving you the best, up-to date advice on getting the most out of the student finance offer and budgeting, whatever the journey your students takes into Higher Education.

And critically, you can be assured of the accuracy, the veracity and the reality of the Guide’s collated information as it is provided directly by Higher Education experts who work in Higher Education institutions.

The Guide covers my particular area of expertise too: fair access and student support. No two students are the same, the particular circumstances of some will benefit from focused and bespoke support whether financial or more practical. As you will read in the Guide, if the pupil needs it, the right support can be identified and accessed well before students even apply to University. And much of that support can continue after admission with many on-course, bespoke student support programmes.

Finally, as an ex-Careers Adviser, I can assure you the Guide is a great tool to confront the often bewildering choice on offer, describing how to take every opportunity in finding and choosing the right course, the right institution and the right experience for your students; all the while discovering, where appropriate, the wide support available for "disadvantaged" students.

Andrew Rawson

Director, Action on Access

The National Education Opportunities Network (NEON) is proud to support the 2026 UniTasterDays Teachers’ Guide to University. We know that, after their parents or carers, the most trusted source of information, advice and guidance comes from young people's teachers. This guide is a key tool to ensure that young people are supported in their choices about their future.

The guide provides teachers with the most up to date information about higher education in an ever-changing landscape. Many of the contributions have come from our NEON members and, by using this guide, teachers can help to guide their pupils through the range of choices that are available to them. By doing so you can support your learners to make the decision that is the best one for their own particular circumstances.