[dwilson1990]

Hi guys,

I'm an I.T professional and have been since 17. I have pretty good GCSEs but unfortunately no A-Levels. What is the best route for me to get into uni?

I have a keen interest and good aptitude with Science but it'd difficult to even get a look in with no grades on paper.

Has anyone successfully earned a place a university whilst in my position? And will I be eligible for student finance? I'm 22 by the way.

any help would be greatly appreicated

Kind Regards,
Dan Wilson.

[dwilson1990]

Oh and the university must be in London.

[kittycat82]

Have you thought about an access course?

[Oh my Ms. Coffey]

Access course/Foundation year. QMUL does a foundation year, dont think Imperial/UCL do.

[Josh20]

My friend got in the university of York with no A-levels or and 1 GCSE he does electronics and he did an access year at southwark college in London

[dwilson1990]

Great I will look into QMUL - What is the difference between access course and foundation year?

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by dwilson1990)
Hi guys,

I'm an I.T professional and have been since 17. I have pretty good GCSEs but unfortunately no A-Levels. What is the best route for me to get into uni?

I have a keen interest and good aptitude with Science but it'd difficult to even get a look in with no grades on paper.

Has anyone successfully earned a place a university whilst in my position? And will I be eligible for student finance? I'm 22 by the way.

any help would be greatly appreicated

Kind Regards,
Dan Wilson.

(Original post by Oh my Ms. Coffey)
Access course/Foundation year. QMUL does a foundation year, dont think Imperial/UCL do.

Read what Ms. Coffey wrote..........but i'm pretty sure qmul foundation year require some a-levels however bad.

[Oh my Ms. Coffey]

(Original post by Iqbal007)
Read what Ms. Coffey wrote..........but i'm pretty sure qmul foundation year require some a-levels however bad.

They might take professional experience into account. I'm sure Loughborough did and foundation years seem to be quite encouraging for mature students.

[PQ]

(Original post by dwilson1990)
Great I will look into QMUL - What is the difference between access course and foundation year?

An access course is done at a Further Education college - access courses cover different subjects and not all are accepted for courses at every university.

A foundation year is done as part of your degree course. It's taught by the university and financed/charged at university rates (so you pay up to £9k in fees but get a tuition fee loan and a student loan to cover living expenses).

You might also want to look into Open University credit courses - depending on which degree you're interested in these are often accepted for entry for mature students with experience. Plus they're part time and designed for disatance learning so you can often continue working while studying for them.

Your best bet is to do some research to identify which degree you are interested in doing first - then find out which universities offer that subject and then contact them to find out what qualifications they would accept from someone with your background.

[dwilson1990]

Ah thanks PQ that's very helpful.

I will do just that. I think anything under the bioscience umbrella is really what I'm interested in so will nail it down and get in touch with the universities.

referring quickly to the second part of my question. Do you know if I would qualify for student finance?

[PQ]

(Original post by dwilson1990)
referring quickly to the second part of my question. Do you know if I would qualify for student finance?

You should be fine to qualify for university student finance. because you're over 21 but under 25 you would have to prove that you are independent from your parents (otherwise your income assess funding would be based on THEIR income and not yours). The most straight forward way to do this is to marry/civil partnership someone (strange but true) - otherwise it can involve lots of paperwork and proving that you've supported yourself financially for years etc etc or proving that you are estranged from your parents. This doesn't mean you wouldn't get anything - it just makes the difference between whether calculations for grants/extra loans are based on your income or on your parents.

If you were to do an Access course then that would be an FE course and the funding is different (and a bit mean if you're over 19) and keeps changing - http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Educatio...rs/DG_10033133 has more details

Support for OU credits is pretty complicated too but there's lots of information on the http://www.OU.ac.uk website

[dwilson1990]

thanks so much for your help PQ