h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which bit did you fancy? The access courses, foundation degrees or just the whole grant thing

The access course thing.

I thought that I was basically screwed out of Uni because I only completed my AS levels and dropped out from the A2 part?

Now someone tells me I could still go?

And I know nothing about grants and stuff either. None of my family went to Uni. And none of them have seen fit to tell me about this stuff.

None of your family went to uni....even better your a classic "widening participation" application...means the uni will most likely get between 5% and 30% extra cash for taking you on.

Access courses are usually run at further education colleges, they usually last between 1 and 3 yrs...and are affiliated with a group of unis which will accept a pass for direct entry onto a course. The only problem with access courses is that you aren't entitled to the normal student funding, the council will pay your fees but you aren't eligable for student loans.

Foundation degrees are a *very* similar thing, the first yr is usually taught at a FE college and the other 3 at a uni but because you are on a uni course from the start you get uni student status.

How did you do in your AS and what subjects where they and what sort of course would you be interested in at uni?

Would you be wanting to stay in Bristol? In which case I should tell you Bristol uni is *awful* for widening participation...there are so many private school/rich kids there that there is a culture of spending. However UWE is a really good old poly...the main difference between Bristol and UWE is that bristol is big on research and UWE is big on teaching and customer service....I know which I would chose.

Anyway...really long post and I've got a plate of chips to eat so....

OK I've had a quick search and made a couple of assumptions...

UWE does a whole pile of cultural and media studies courses (brief course synopsis: "This degree aims to provide an understanding of the culture we live in and an understanding of the media as a significant part of that wider cultural context. We look at how people create meaning in their everyday lives, whether through their dress, what they do on holiday or which sites they visit on the internet. We also study the activities and cultural products of global organisations, such as Sony or Microsoft or Greenpeace and place them in the context of wider processes of change in the modern world.") combined with a whole bunch of things (including english, politics, sociology and languages).

The english course synopsis: "The BA(Hons) English at UWE concentrates on Renaissance and 19th and 20th century literature. This focus provides you with an opportunity to acquire a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of different traditions of literature of the Renaissance and the last two hundred years." English can also be combined with a group of other subjects.

To get onto either course they ask for the usual (A levels, VCE a levels, international baccalaureate etc etc) or a pass in an appropriate access or foundation course. The only thing seems to be that they don't offer foundation degrees so one yr without student loans.

So I've looked a bit further...City of Bristol College offers a course called "Access to Combined Studies". Its a one yr course "You will study core subjects in Maths, English and Study Skills as well as options in a range of subjects. You will develop the appropriate skills necessary to succeed in Higher Education."...to get onto that course it says: "You don't need any formal entry qualifications, just a desire to learn and motivation to succeed."...no probs there then. And the Access course is OCN Nationally recognnised so if you wanted to you could go somewhere else in the country to go to uni.

Time wise I'd think you'd be best applying for a foundation course as soon as possible, although you wont be able to start until sept 2003. Which means you will be filling in a UCAS form between sept and dec 2003 to start uni sept 2004...the yr that grants start...how old will you be in Sept 2004 - if its less than 21 then you will be ok tuition fees wise because your LEA will pay.

The grants will be £1000 a yr for people whose annual household income is less than £10,000...between £10k and £20k I think you would get a chunk of that £1000 a yr...but because the government only published this stuff last week it's still to be decided.

Either way top up fees wont be starting until 2006.

I really don't want to go through the further education route again. I did that with my A-levels, and despite it being the most bearable option available, I still burnt out. I got a B and two C's (Psychology, English Lit, Film Studies)...so if I *had* stayed at college, I would have got into Uni fine. I just completely recoil at the thought of going through all that again. I wish I could have skipped college, and gone right into Uni. It was hard for my college tutors to realise that I was there because I wanted to learn about the subject, as opposed to using it as a ladder to student life. So I ended up really mentally frustrated. I'm not sure what I want to do. More than likely a course on Creative Writing. Nothing heavy. Just something to...shove in my back pocket for a while. Life is *really* pressured for me right now. Not happy. No one's giving me the help I need either.

And I really couldn't care less where I study. Doesn't bother me. I doubt that a Uni's reputation is indicitive of the quality of teaching. Not these days anyway. All pomp and prestige!



Too much. Why isn't there a holding room in Life where you can opt out for a while...

You *could* try applying direct...some uni's will accept just AS levels, especially if you've got a raft of GCSEs. Access courses are mainly for mature students to help them get their head around uni type studying and to get their basic knowledge up to the A level kids...so it is completely different from A levels...you would be studying with other people who *want* to learn and the teaching methods are more uni like...lectures, seminars, tutorials, independant study, group work...instead of do the coursework, learn all this stuff, do these exams. In fact its fairly unlikely there would be any exams involved...and even if there were they would be a completely different format to A levels.

Either way if you are at all interested give them a ring and get them to post you a prospectus UWE: 0117 344 3333...if nothing else its usually entertaining to look through the pictures and cross of smiley female student, smiley black student, smiley asian student, smiley mature student and smiley disabled student

Oh and City of Bristol has 0117 904 5163 next to "access to higher education courses" they might be able to explain better than I can what the courses/attitude is like.

I wouldn't touch the City of Bristol with a bargepole. But thats just me!

I suppose just looking through a prospectus wouldn't do any harm. I have 12 GCSE's behind me (only one of those is below a C grade *ego* *ego*).
Aaargh. F**king Tony Blair. Why did he have to test out his reforms on me?

Then again. A lot of people seemed to cope with it. Must just be me!

Sorry - saw city of bristol had a website so I had a look.

I know Soton city college runs access courses but that actually the teaching etc is all done by the uni lecturers...the college is just allowed to do FE courses and we arent

How about distance learning? Open University is pretty pricey though (the LEA *wont* stump up for it)...but you can spread it out and just do the modules you fancy...and they do a MUCH wider range of stuff. Their phone number is 01908 858585 to get a prospectus.

I've got an O.U. prospectus. Nothing there that I could afford.



I don't think any of this sounds as good as I thought it might.

Sorry - didn't mean to get your hopes up...it's worth getting in touch with some people at some unis though...if you sent them some of your past work they might be convinced that you don't need the FE step to get you up to HE level (and to be honest I don't think you need it...your obviously much smarter and much more motivated than the run of the mill A level applicants)...if you can contact the admissions tutor for the course your interested in directly and convince them that you are capable and that your A levels didn't get completed due to circumstances out of your control (bulls**t if it wasn't...all you need is to convince em that you didn't just drop out because of lack of interest but for a much more worthy reason). The admissions tutor has final say...and the worst s/he can say is no...in which case s/he is probably a sad little muppet.

Oh no. It's not your fault You've certainly opened up a door I didn't know was there.

I'm not in a very upbeat mood tonight thats all...!

Well you've got plenty of time....a year at the ver least

And admissions tutors can be a great ally if you can turn them...in most cases they have the final say about who gets on the course, and they also usually have all sorts of contacts who can help you find a back way in.

If you have any questions about anything like this feel free to give me a shout...it's what I spend a lot of time doing over on the radio 1, one life message boards....anything but work

Thanks a lot PQ

Right. Admission tutors. I usually have no problem impressing academics. I once got offered a place at St Brendans 6th form (Have you heard of that place?) based on my preliminary application form. Because I liked to read. Just suppose I have to make one of those good impression things.

Too complicated.

OK, I couldn't be bothered to read the whole conversation, but would just like to clarify something PQ said earlier- foundation years can be done at universities, rather than just colleges, although the colleges offer a far wider range.

Done the college thing. Hated it. Ain't going back.



I hate my life. Tony Blair *had* to f**k the education system around, didn't he?!

be fair, he's not picking on education, he's f**ked the whole damn country, and now he's doing his best to f**k the rest of the world as well.

But still my education. I was in the generation that got ALL the changes. SATS, GCSE's A-levels.

What a c**t.

utter t**t, I'm still p***ed about the fact that according to Labour, inserting tuition fees, abolishing grants and encouraging students to get massively in debt is a way of making university "accessible to all".

*off to check the "banned words" list, and see how many could be used to describe Tony "insincere tosspot muppet on the lap of George "how do you spell W?" Bush" Blair.*

And I was one of the two top students in the bloody school!!!! I could have done *so* well...if they had JUST left the A-levels alone. I was all set up for it. Then in the middle of the GCSE's they announced the change.

C**TS! C**TS! C**TS!

(Hope that wasn't too much)

So now, I have no idea where my life is going. Down a hole I expect. The only thing I really feel like I have going for me is my bloody writing.

*mutters*

c**t.