If you"re a 17-year-old, or his or her parents, desperately trying to find objective information, try The Times Good University Guide based on The Times"s league tables published annually since 1992. This is especially useful now that there are no official government league tables to enable you to compare higher education institutions. The Guide ranks the top 100 universities from Oxford to Thames Valley in terms of teaching assessment, graduate destinations, efficiency and other criteria in a user-friendly table. Then you can look up the subject you want to study and read a double page spread about each university--including statistics, contact details and miscellaneous information. There"s useful guidance about application procedures and accommodation too. Armed with the knowledge that Glasgow Caledonian "has spent £350 million transforming previously mediocre facilities into a single campus that does justice to a modern university of 14,000 students", or that Nottingham, second only to Cambridge in the number of subjects rated for teaching at the highest level, has 14,315 undergraduate students and 8.9 applicants per place, you really are in a good position to decide where to apply. It is difficult to see how anyone could make a realistic university application without studying John O"Leary"s handy annual guide, although it"s a pity it wasn"t proof-read more thoroughly. --Susan Elkin