According to statistics from the government, around 42% of people under thirty enrolled at a University in 2004: I was one of them.

In November 2003 I made one of the most important and life-changing decisions of my young life, and decided to attend the University of London to further my education. Since that day I have never looked back, despite the threat of student loans and the possibility that no employer will recognise my degree as it is a relatively new concept (I’m taking a BA in Comparative Literature…feel free to ask!).

So here I am, nearly 21 years old, already in around seven thousand pound’s worth of debt (and there’s still one year to go!), and I am working hard, playing hard, and loving my University experience on the whole. Did I mention I am living at home? Well, that’s quite a big part of the experience: countless floors have been slept on, numerous afternoons wasted in the student bar, and many bowls of pasta and sauce eaten at lunchtime, paid for with the change from my train ticket. But I still have the luxury of a home-cooked meal every night and clothes ready as and when I need them. And hugs and immediate support from my family on tap.

In November 2005, my little brother (I say little – he’s actually much taller than me and 18 years old) also had to make that all-important decision. He has problems when left alone at home: it goes so far as our mother still sorts his washing out and peels his apples for him…so imagine my surprise when he announced that he was going to Manchester to study! That’s a long, long way from London.

At first I didn’t think he was serious: not only would he have to worry about the newly-introduced top-up fees, a completely and utterly ridiculous idea, but he would on top of that have to consider his accommodation fees. By the time he leaves University in 2009, he will be around twenty thousand (yes, 20000) Great British Pounds in debt. How scary is that???

But this is not really about the money: it is about the independence he has to gain and the self-confidence and growing up he has to achieve in order to take his first steps into the real world as a fully-fledged adult. And it’s hard. He’s 18 years old, living in a city around 200 miles from home, and has only a square room as his haven. And I miss him.

So what does it mean to live at home throughout your University life? For me it has meant getting the best of both worlds: I am not confined to any area, campus or room. But when my younger brother left me behind, it was suddenly the most disconcerting thing that has ever happened to me: he has left home for ten weeks at a time, and yet it is me who feels uprooted and uneasy. How selfish is that? He says it’s not at all, that he misses his big sister too.

So what is the bigger challenge for 18 year olds making that so important and essential decision? It’s not whether or not to accept the student loan. It’s whether to be the one who embarks on a new life in a new area, or to be the one who is left behind. Having experienced both on a short-term basis, I’m really not sure.