The Student Room Group

Contextual Offer Universities or 'Access to _____' schemes

Hi, I am currently looking to study Business ('Management') at university for 2018 entry and am currently in Year 13. I believe my first choice will be the University of Leeds, due to how good the city looks in terms of nightlife, price, being a student dominated city and the quality of the university itself. Not only this, I will be applying to their Access to Leeds scheme as if successful, I will receive a BBB offer instead of AAB due to fulfilling their requirements of having low household income and being in the first generation to go to university. With this in mind and Leeds lowering an offer by TWO WHOLE GRADES, are there any other top universities that would do the same? My other top preference was the University of Nottingham, which asks for my requirements but doesn't have a scheme as such. Southampton have a 'Access to Southampton' scheme but this is to be applied for in Year 12, meaning I missed this.
Original post by Mahel
Hi, I am currently looking to study Business ('Management':wink: at university for 2018 entry and am currently in Year 13. I believe my first choice will be the University of Leeds, due to how good the city looks in terms of nightlife, price, being a student dominated city and the quality of the university itself. Not only this, I will be applying to their Access to Leeds scheme as if successful, I will receive a BBB offer instead of AAB due to fulfilling their requirements of having low household income and being in the first generation to go to university. With this in mind and Leeds lowering an offer by TWO WHOLE GRADES, are there any other top universities that would do the same? My other top preference was the University of Nottingham, which asks for my requirements but doesn't have a scheme as such. Southampton have a 'Access to Southampton' scheme but this is to be applied for in Year 12, meaning I missed this.

A fair few universities are bit of the scheme but you would have had to have applied in year 12 to do that. Bristol has a management BSC with a contextual offer of BBB which you might meet the criteria for.
Reply 2
Original post by Mahel
Hi, I am currently looking to study Business ('Management':wink: at university for 2018 entry and am currently in Year 13. I believe my first choice will be the University of Leeds, due to how good the city looks in terms of nightlife, price, being a student dominated city and the quality of the university itself. Not only this, I will be applying to their Access to Leeds scheme as if successful, I will receive a BBB offer instead of AAB due to fulfilling their requirements of having low household income and being in the first generation to go to university. With this in mind and Leeds lowering an offer by TWO WHOLE GRADES, are there any other top universities that would do the same? My other top preference was the University of Nottingham, which asks for my requirements but doesn't have a scheme as such. Southampton have a 'Access to Southampton' scheme but this is to be applied for in Year 12, meaning I missed this.


Bristol
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/entry-requirements-qualifications/contextual-offers/
Reply 3
Original post by claireestelle
A fair few universities are bit of the scheme but you would have had to have applied in year 12 to do that. Bristol has a management BSC with a contextual offer of BBB which you might meet the criteria for.




Literally had Bristol open when I got the TSR notification :biggrin: here's the thing though:

-I attend a top grammar school so definitely not an aspiring one
-not in an area with a low progression to HE
-Access to Bristol doesn't seem to have anything business related and would require me to travel there every wednesday whereas Leeds' scheme is digital
-I haven't spent time in care
Reply 4
Also for Nottingham (see here http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/applying/ourpolicies.aspx#Flexibleadmissionspolicy), I fulfil both points in the first bullet point but as there's no application, how would my school let them know about this? It says that it should be included in the reference so do I tell them to include it somehow?
Original post by Mahel
Literally had Bristol open when I got the TSR notification :biggrin: here's the thing though:

-I attend a top grammar school so definitely not an aspiring one
-not in an area with a low progression to HE
-Access to Bristol doesn't seem to have anything business related and would require me to travel there every wednesday whereas Leeds' scheme is digital
-I haven't spent time in care


so your contextual criteria are basically low household income and first to go to university, you wouldn't meet any others? That would lessen your options a bit.
Reply 6
Original post by claireestelle
so your contextual criteria are basically low household income and first to go to university, you wouldn't meet any others? That would lessen your options a bit.


yeah that's it. i'm happy with Leeds as I wanted to go there before I found out about the 'Access To Leeds' scheme but now that I know about that, just wanted to see if there are any others (aside from Nottingham) that will consider me under the same criteria
Reply 7
Original post by Mahel
Literally had Bristol open when I got the TSR notification :biggrin: here's the thing though:

-I attend a top grammar school so definitely not an aspiring one
-not in an area with a low progression to HE
-Access to Bristol doesn't seem to have anything business related and would require me to travel there every wednesday whereas Leeds' scheme is digital
-I haven't spent time in care


So leave the "Access to" and Contextual Offer schemes to those who are disadvantaged and actually need them :wink:

If you are missing the grades for a course there's always the Foundation Year route.
Original post by Mahel
yeah that's it. i'm happy with Leeds as I wanted to go there before I found out about the 'Access To Leeds' scheme but now that I know about that, just wanted to see if there are any others (aside from Nottingham) that will consider me under the same criteria


Yeah, instead of looking for contextual offers, look at foundation years as a back up and perhaps look at universities that have decent bursaries if you're concerned about the financial aspect, but if you're in the lowest household income bracket as long as you don't insist on an en suite studio in leeds city centre you should be more than fine on your loan.
Reply 9
Original post by Mahel
yeah that's it. i'm happy with Leeds as I wanted to go there before I found out about the 'Access To Leeds' scheme but now that I know about that, just wanted to see if there are any others (aside from Nottingham) that will consider me under the same criteria


Original post by claireestelle
Yeah, instead of looking for contextual offers, look at foundation years as a back up and perhaps look at universities that have decent bursaries if you're concerned about the financial aspect, but if you're in the lowest household income bracket as long as you don't insist on an en suite studio in leeds city centre you should be more than fine on your loan.


Coincidentally - I also replied to a Leeds cost of living thread:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5011886&p=74215510#post74215510
Reply 10
Alright :smile: lastly, Birmingham or Exeter? This is when considering the reasons I chose Leeds originally
Original post by Mahel
Alright :smile: lastly, Birmingham or Exeter? This is when considering the reasons I chose Leeds originally


I don't know much about either city, but price wise i think brum is likely to be much cheaper than exeter,
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/support/moneyadvice/living.aspx (ignore the £50 a week on food though, i can feed two of us off that in a good week:P)
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/international/studyabroad/inbound/livingcosts/
Original post by Mahel
Also for Nottingham (see here http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/applying/ourpolicies.aspx#Flexibleadmissionspolicy), I fulfil both points in the first bullet point but as there's no application, how would my school let them know about this? It says that it should be included in the reference so do I tell them to include it somehow?


Nottingham's contextual offers are automatic so no application is needed, they assess everything based on your UCAS application information I believe like income, educational history and checking your postcode and will usually give a contextual offer from say AAB to ABB or ABB to BBB and so on, the lowest is BBC.
Reply 13
Original post by dontgivea
Nottingham's contextual offers are automatic so no application is needed, they assess everything based on your UCAS application information I believe like income, educational history and checking your postcode and will usually give a contextual offer from say AAB to ABB or ABB to BBB and so on, the lowest is BBC.


Any idea how they check income if there's no option for that on the UCAS application?
Reply 14
Original post by Mahel
Alright :smile: lastly, Birmingham or Exeter? This is when considering the reasons I chose Leeds originally


As well as the universities own "cost of living" or "student budget", or whatever, pages you can play with things like:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&country2=United+Kingdom&city1=Birmingham&city2=Exeter&tracking=getDispatchComparison
Original post by Mahel
Any idea how they check income if there's no option for that on the UCAS application?


Usually from the evidence given in your SFE application.
Original post by Mahel
Any idea how they check income if there's no option for that on the UCAS application?


Your SFE application will provide this, however your income alone probably won't be a decider but other factors.

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