Ucas points

Any mature students offer any advice on ucas points.
a lot of graduate jobs i am looking at require very good ucas points, which access courses don't give.

should I be worried ?

Reply 1

defhauss

The Access course provides a different kind of points system which Unis accept. Get in touch with the Unis you are looking at and they should give you more info! I have 4 conditional offers and halfway through Access course.

Reply 2

jaksonmith

Individual universities do have a points system of sorts, especially for highly subscribed courses such as medicine, So if an applicant is working really hard in their exam levels and is predicted straight As, they cant get a look in for something.

Thanks
Infraredtraininginstitute

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

derek1

Thanks for the replies but you may have missed my point.

When applying for grad jobs how do you get by the ucas points screening barrier if you have been an access student.

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Reply 4

Klix88

Original post by derek1

When applying for grad jobs how do you get by the ucas points screening barrier if you have been an access student.

I think your best bet would be to contact the company/organisation in advance of submitting an application, to get their advice. It could be different for each. Most major companies have automated application screening and if you just apply cold without the stated requirements, your application will immediately be rejected by the computer system used for the screening process. Best to deal with the people.

Having said that, I'm not sure how welll you'd do. One example of the UCAS points requirement, is the KPMG Graduate Programme. Buried deep in the small print, it does say that the UCAS points requirement can be waived at their discretion. However, given that your application would be up against probably hundreds which meet/exceed the stated requirements, I'm not sure what it would take to make you look equally attractive as a candidate. You might need to have some pretty heavy-duty professional experience, or have graduated from uni top of your class etc.

But it must always be worth a try. Never trust the robots!

Reply 5

Vertigo2012

Supposedly UCAS are in the process of finding a way to convert Access courses into points, although they've been saying this since at least 2012. Watch this space?

Reply 6

b0x3s

So ridiculous that it's based on UCAS points, what's the point in doing a degree then if it's not based off of your classification?

Reply 7

Klix88

Original post by b0x3s

So ridiculous that it's based on UCAS points, what's the point in doing a degree then if it's not based off of your classification?

I think the problem is that there are now so many people graduating with a First or 2:1, that a good degree result is no longer enough to narrow down a huge pile of applications. Employers have looked around for a second criterion to use and have decided on UCAS points. The rationale seems to be that a good degree + high UCAS points is proof that an applicant has performed consistently well over a five year period.

The flaw in this is of course people who came to uni via non-traditional routes like Access. Let's hope somebody manages to assign UCAS points to these courses soon, as employers are filtering out a layer of people who can be exceptionally capable. Hopefully the current standardisation and tightening of Access course marking/assessment, is part of the preparation for that.