Last year saw personal UK consumers take out a massive £37 million in loans to help cover the cost of their education.

New data released from Sainsbury’s Finance show that education costs increased in the 12 months till the end of February by five per cent, with the group attributing the higher costs as the main reason for bank assistance which was mainly used to pay university and school fees, personal loans and general education costs.

The supermarket bank estimated that close to 4,400 personal loans were arranged over the past year at an average rate of £8,500 for assistance with educational charges. The breakdown from Sainsbury’s Finance showed that 1,100 loans were granted at a total worth of £12.25 million to help payment of school fees.  University and college fees were worth £13.56 million across 1,900 loans.

Sainsbury’s Finance Head of Loans, Steven Baillie, confirmed that the cost of education was indeed rising, with school fees up by 5.9 per cent, while the Consumer Price Index educational component grew by five per cent. The slow pace of the economic recovery meant that many students still faced challenges to generate the revenue required for the completion of their studies.

An evaluation of government data by Sainsbury’s Finance discovered that £8.8 billion was spent on education between 2006 and 2008 across the UK – a figure which showed dramatic variances between regional fees. London students paid an average of £770 a year, as compared to just £208 in the North West of Britain.

Off-the-wall singer Lady Gaga will soon be making her own wacky outfits as she signs up to a summer fashion internship. The ‘Poker Face’ pop star, who is known for her weird and wonderful dress sense as much as her catchy dance tunes, will be taken under the wing of Irish hat designer Phillip Treacy.

Treacy, who is commonly believed to be one of the best headwear makers of the 20th century, has promised to teach the American songstress everything he knows. The fashion designer is well already acquainted with Gaga’s unique style, having made several headpieces for her in the past, including a velvet telephone and a silver lightning bolt.

Lady Gaga is known throughout the fashion world as a woman not afraid to experiment. Never seen out in public in anything but the most immaculate outfits, the 24 year old artist is a fan of heavy, cheek-sweeping eye make-up and bone-crushingly tight Lycra togs. She also claims that fashion is the muse behind many of her songs and performances.

Miss Gaga admits that she goes for the ‘extreme’ rather than the ‘sexy’ on stage, with masks, fake blood and electronic moving outfits favoured above slinky dresses and mini-skirts. But who knows whether she will be successful enough in her new internship to wear some of her own creations on stage? If so, it will certainly be hats off to Lady Gaga.

The recent debate over the use of plus-sized models and the backlash from the fashion industry has been taken down a level. British mannequin manufacturer Rootstein has launched a new range of dummies that has once again set off the weight war of words, with campaigners for eating disorders being especially incensed at the waif-liked bodies.

Beat, the UK charity that helps people affected with eating disorders, has lashed out at the news of the new mannequin release, which will be officially unveiled next month at a collection for Young and Restless. The male mannequin, for example, features a chest measuring 35 inches and a waistline of just 27 inches – making him 11 inches slimmer around the waste than the average British male according to statistics from the NHS.

Susan Ringwold, eating disorder expert and chief executive for Beat, told reporters that shop windows full of overly skinny mannequins can have just as negative of an effect on males as females. Males are coming under increasing pressure to feel the same body consciousness as females in modern times, and the result has been a rise in eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia among males.

Rootstein would not comment directly on the allegations, but has said previously that it does use deliberately slender, but healthy, teenagers for models – a trend they claim is seen amongst pop stars and celebrities everywhere.

Teachers in local public schools across the UK are constantly looking for inventive, interesting new ways to keep young pupils interested in learning. Some of the most challenging subjects include math and science, and instructors are constantly adapting teaching methods to appeal to these young, technology savvy students.

And while Ofsted has said that one such school was using drums to get students to understand the relationship between numbers for a math section, a school in London staged a mini “fashion week” inspired after the annual London Fashion Week in order to generate an interest in the science behind making clothing.

The move, however, has broached concern that instructors are simplifying complex science concepts in order to capture the attention of uninterested students. Think-tank, Civitas’ head of education Anastasia de Waal expressed her fear that techniques such as the fashion week approach would take away from challenging students with bigger issues.

Many have argued that by “dumbing” down such science concepts so that they will be entertaining to children is missing the idea of education, which according to de Waal is to challenge and engage students.

Patrick Lesson, director of education for Ofsted, disagrees however. He added that using creative approaches can make school more relevant and interesting for young students capturing their attention and increasing cognitive learning. He even added that one school in the UK altered their teaching methods to include more alternative, creative methods and over a period of three years saw GCSE results double.