The Economist is a brilliant source to increase general awareness of subject-specific current affairs for personal statement writing and university interviews. The magazine (and Economist podcasts) are not only fantastic for aspiring economists, but students preparing for a whole array of STEM and Humanities courses. In this Curious Minds digest, we explore five of the Economist’s top 10 trends for the world ahead in 2022, posing a range of Oxbridge interview-style questions and offering reading suggestions for students looking beyond the syllabus in their degree preparation.

For students looking into law as a subject to study and as a profession, it is important to engage with legal issues and have an awareness of some current legal affairs, trends and developments. 2021 has been a year in which citizens across the globe have faced exceptional challenges. In this digest, we explore some of the biggest questions in law in 2021 kickstarted by the pandemic, with a range of thinking tasks and suggested resources to enhance your understanding of some of these arguments, and stimulate wider engagement with current legal issues.

Minds Underground’s “The Latest in Law” blog explores potential areas for reform and raises interesting interdisciplinary questions for aspiring law students to explore. In our latest, Sylvie looks at the law of surrogacy, a pressing labour law issue at the moment, currently under review by the Law Commission. Find out why the Law of Surrogacy presents a discrepancy between the law on paper and the law in practice, and some of the key areas of debate that arise. Should surrogacy be allowed at all?

You may have heard the phrase ‘gig economy’ kicking around, but do you really know what it is and some of the pressing labour issues its rise has stimulated? The term has emerged to describe the new and increasingly popular form of employment exemplified by the likes of Uber or Deliveroo. Rather than having a clear and set workplace, such companies provide lots of individual ‘gigs’ to people – often through an app. But what does that mean for employers’ rights? How can we ensure that workers are given the protection they deserve, without stripping them of the flexibility the gig economy was originally intended to provide?

A moot is a mock trial or pretend court hearing in which participants act as advocates for each side. Mooting is commonly undertaken by trainee lawyers, in particular those who want to become barristers, as court advocacy is the foundation of a career at the Bar. It’s also a great activity for anyone to undertake as it helps to develop public speaking and advocacy skills. Emma leads you through her top tips for approaching a mooting problem and mastering the art of persuasive argument building.

Law is one of the building blocks of our society. It shapes and moulds people’s behaviour and so says a lot about what we collectively value and how. It is particularly worrying, therefore, when we get it wrong. Follow Cambridge law graduate, Sylvie’s, path to the cutting-edge research she is currently undertaking in gender disparities on her PhD and what crucial steps she took to prepare for her undergraduate law application.

In today’s world there is ever-more pressure to decide on your career path at an early stage. How can you make sure to make the right decisions? Read 1st Class Cambridge Law graduate, Ben’s blog post on the importance of networking, work experience and Law-specific application tips.