Aged 25, and after several exam attempts, I was finally admitted to the University of Cambridge as a medical student. My mother and sister S came with me to Cambridge on my first day to help me settle in. They waved me off in the early evening as I headed to the dining hall to meet my fellow students for the first time.

I was rather disappointed that you had to walk through a bookshop en route to dinner. Did every aspect of higher education these days need to be so obviously commericialised? My other complaint was the state of the toilets. Whoever thought that open cubicles and a lack of gender segregation were a good idea?