MSc Speech and Language Therapy 2018 Entry

I would imagine everyone, give it a whirl and see? I really really doubt they would have it set up for only one university, it has to be a standard confirmed thing (which it is now they've released and confirmed details) for it to make it to this stage. But don't quote me on that...!

I actually applied. Under the 'undergraduate' section title when applying (you choose between a box for undergrad and a box for postgrad, both boxes list what they cover) it has 'Postgraduate Healthcare Courses' and a couple of other Master's level degrees too. And then it asks later if it's dentistry/medicine, and it doesn't auto boot you out when you say no, and later when you put the course title in, it matches it up and says you are eligible for the tuition and the maintenance loans, up to x y z, exactly what UCL said in their email earlier.

Someone quoted the UCL email earlier for their exact wording, so it's come from a uni and definitely works as I've now just applied

Sorry I probably made it sound confusing, you apply for a loan technically under the 'undergraduate' heading, but it's most definitely for your postgrad course, as it gives you opportunity to give course title (e.g. MSc Speech and Language Sciences). It then asked me which year of my degree I was applying for finance for, first or second, so clearly knew what was up.

great! thank you for breaking it down I’m still gonna hold fire for now but did a little practise and it worked for newcastle... but not sheffield. it’s seems their course doesn’t come up on the “course search”. fingers crossed it works out and we all get enough tuition to cover the fees

I would imagine everyone, give it a whirl and see? I really really doubt they would have it set up for only one university, it has to be a standard confirmed thing (which it is now they've released and confirmed details) for it to make it to this stage. But don't quote me on that...!

problem is that most courses are over 9.25k in tuition, and sheffield’s course (£11.2k per year) is currently absent from their “course search”. there’s time for things to be changed and updated but I have a suspicion that UCL and newcastle are appearing because they are either equal or below the available 9.25k available (am I right in believing UCL’s course is 9.25k???). this is supported by the fact that city, essex, greenwich and queen margaret postgrad SLT courses aren’t appearing - all of which are currently over 9.25k in tuition per year. I’ve searched lots of different key words “speech” “language” “therapy” “communication” and nothing comes up.

since the report has been released, maybe some uni’s are considering negotiating tuition. I noticed the student finance application states that any courses in excess of 9.25k need to be paid independently... soooo that’s a bit of a problem lol.

problem is that most courses are over 9.25k in tuition, and sheffield’s course (£11.2k per year) is currently absent from their “course search”. there’s time for things to be changed and updated but I have a suspicion that UCL and newcastle are appearing because they are either equal or below the available 9.25k available (am I right in believing UCL’s course is 9.25k???). this is supported by the fact that city, essex, greenwich and queen margaret postgrad SLT courses aren’t appearing - all of which are currently over 9.25k in tuition per year. I’ve searched lots of different key words “speech” “language” “therapy” “communication” and nothing comes up.

since the report has been released, maybe some uni’s are considering negotiating tuition. I noticed the student finance application states that any courses in excess of 9.25k need to be paid independently... soooo that’s a bit of a problem lol.

Like slg said, UCL are trying to negotiate it to that price now. Also, it looks like you can get the max loan, and then pay the extra yourself, not pay the whole thing independently!

yep we all have access to the max loan but in the case of most courses, that won’t cover the total tuition. sorry if I didn’t make that clear :P I am personally not in a position to make up the extra £4k so it will be a real shame if nothing is negotiated. I can’t see how they can get away with charging £14k (in the case of essex) etc, and expect students to cover anything in excess of the available loan. I know postgrad courses can essentially charge what they like but because it’s a healthcare course (that was previously funded) it doesn’t seem ethical. fingers crossed the absence of most courses on student finance means costs are being negotiated 😊

Hey, I'm currently studying the course at UCL and just wanted to say Congratulations to all of you, you will love it at UCL. Hopefully meet you in September!

Hi, I'm a bit late to answer but also got offered a place at UCL, just thinking about accepting! So was really good to hear you say we'd love it! Can I please ask... the one thing I'm nervous about between UCL and city is the UCL dissertation. Do you get some support with it and is the work load manageable? At the city interview they suggested it wasn't manageable with all the lectures / placements too which was why City have a smaller dissertation and that's made me quite nervous about it!

Hey, congratulations! I haven't started my project yet as I'm in my first year but I've just chosen my options. I think you have to be careful to choose a supervisor who will provide what you need e.g. like if you want a lot of support. And there is a variety of projects, so you could make it easier for yourself by using one where data is already collected. You definitely get a lot of support with it. Supervisors only have a few students to supervise each. I think the projects at UCL are a great addition to the course, we have lots of amazing lecturers, so lots of great project options including options working with practicing SLTs at GOSH etc, and it is hilarious City say that because UCL has been an MSc course for years and doing fine and City have only just changed so probably less support/experience from them! You get one study day off a week at UCL, so I think a lot of people use that time to work on their project. Also they adapt the project workload at certain points in the year to fit around other assessments. The course is very hard and intense, no doubt more so than the course at City, but UCL is an academic and well respected university at the forefront of research based practice. I wouldn't change my choice of uni, but you get a feel for where will suit you best, so go with your gut.

Rainbow, do you think the course at UCL is more intense than City ? I have a friend whose doing the MSC at City and she said lectures begin at 9am and finish at 6pm. I’m assuming that’s why City said the students won’t have enough time to write a large dissertation.

I've been offered a place at City too so pleased!!
Look forward to meeting you all. Good luck to those still waiting to hear. x

Hey, congratulations! I haven't started my project yet as I'm in my first year but I've just chosen my options. I think you have to be careful to choose a supervisor who will provide what you need e.g. like if you want a lot of support. And there is a variety of projects, so you could make it easier for yourself by using one where data is already collected. You definitely get a lot of support with it. Supervisors only have a few students to supervise each. I think the projects at UCL are a great addition to the course, we have lots of amazing lecturers, so lots of great project options including options working with practicing SLTs at GOSH etc, and it is hilarious City say that because UCL has been an MSc course for years and doing fine and City have only just changed so probably less support/experience from them! You get one study day off a week at UCL, so I think a lot of people use that time to work on their project. Also they adapt the project workload at certain points in the year to fit around other assessments. The course is very hard and intense, no doubt more so than the course at City, but UCL is an academic and well respected university at the forefront of research based practice. I wouldn't change my choice of uni, but you get a feel for where will suit you best, so go with your gut.

Well I don't know loads about the course at City but my understanding is yes, a bit. I thought that City was in uni more hours because they were a bigger group and had to be split for labs etc so you might have more gaps during the day than we have, not sure though but like I know City students started half way through Sept and we started at the end of August so we had already had three weeks of lectures before they started and I'm pretty sure we get shorter holidays. Also I know we cover a lot of content quickly because UCL students are on placement with City students and have said that like we have covered all of our speech stuff entirely but City students have done hardly any of it, although that could be the structure of the course because City isn't split adults and children like ours. I think one of the main differences that I have heard about is that we constantly have coursework and assessments to complete, like every 2/3 weeks something is due (it was slightly less intense at the start) whereas at City I don't think it's like that, although I'm not sure exactly what it is like. And yes you complete/write your project alongside that - although you mainly write up in the summer once lectures have ended I think. I know it might look like our course is less intense because we are 9-5 and have one day off but I don't think that is the case. Most days I stay at uni in the library until 8 😴

Hi rainbowworld, thank you so much for posting this, it's really helpful. I'm glad you're enjoying the course. A quick question if you don't mind. I'm due to start the City course in September and need to buy a laptop. Which applications do you use on the course? Am in right in thinking it's just word processing for essays and presentations? Sorry for the left-field question!

Congratulations! There are a few actually - word and power point are used the most obviously! You can get office programmes for free when you start with your student email. We also used PRAAT - a program for speech analysis - they may use a different programme at City, but probably very similar. Also some resources /books have CDs still, so make sure you have a way of watching them. Oh and I think next year we use SPSS statistic program - not sure we will need it on our own laptop though but might log onto the uni server through Remote Desktop. On and also we use true crypt/vera crypt as we show videos from placement in our tutorial groups and these have to be encrypted to be stored on our computers - again City might not do this, but something very basic to watch videos on/possibly edit them would be useful. If you want to take notes in your lecture consider battery life for the laptop too. Definitely worth investing in a new laptop for the course, I had to as well.