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Degree difficulty, Foundation Degrees and BTEC National Certs - oh my

Good evening, regulars or visitors of The Student Room!

- - ! Questions are posted at the bottom of the post, if you'd like to skip the background posted below. ! - -

I'm currently a student in a BTEC National Certificate - IT Practitioners and I'm in my second and final year of the course.. My grades are the best in the class so far; I'm managing full distinctions in every module (currently 9 modules done) and expect the other 9 modules to be Distinction-grade as well, so I'm hoping for a grade DDD (one Certificate and one Award alongside it, making 3 grades).

I'm doing the usual mad research into a university and course, and have set my heart on Glamorgan. However, the course type is causing me some concern. I'm currently set on a HND in Computer Science, but I'm advised by more than one source to enter into a fully blown Degree instead. This caught my interest, as a Degree would enable me to collect a £3000 scholarship for having over 300 UCAS Points, whereas the HND would not. However; I've heard that degrees can be tough.

This worries me. My GCSE grades weren't anything to write home to - 7 B's and 2 or 3 C's - and I'm worried that the BTEC National Certificate I'm doing was simply too easy, and that I will get a nasty shock and fail to cope with the workload a Degree seems to have.

Also, I've heard about a Foundation Degree course, but know little about them - what do they involve? What are they about? How do they differ from HND's?

So after much ado, here are my final questions I would love to read insights on -

Q. ) Was the BTEC National Certificate too easy?

Q. ) How difficult are degrees as opposed to HND's or Foundation Degrees?

Q. ) What exactly are Foundation Degrees?

I realise these might be very general questions, but even so I'd love to hear an answer on them as soon as you're able to reply.

Thanks for your input!

- Pride.

Reply 1

Pridethunder

OP

Bumping to get some views on the topic. :x

Reply 2

xlaser31

6

I've been down that route myself, but it was 25 years ago and have since became a lecturer at various technical colleges. The culture is different now in that nobody fails, (if your students fail then you are out of a job) but if you want a degree with any meaning it must be a 1st or bare minimum 2.1. Businesses have a vast pool of potential employees to choose both from UK and EU so they can afford to cream off the best. Its tough to get a first from a good University, but on the other side of the coin an ordinary pass grade is barely worth the paper its written on. I've applied for jobs in which the organisation advertising the positions have received over a thousand applications. I will leave you with one question: What criteria do you think they will use to create a short list of 10?

Reply 3

xxxchrisxxx

11

if you go to a good university, you'll get plenty of help if you struggle and inform the relevant people (tutor, course unit teacher etc)

dont worry if you're not particularly brilliant. at uni what matters is doing what the lecturer tells you, so if you dont slack, you'll be ok.

Reply 4

Pridethunder

OP

Decided to go straight for a degree. I've wanted to be taxed for some serious time now - ever since Primary school - so I believe a degree to be the time to get into waters hot enough for me. Thanks guys!

Reply 5

username36063

11

Pridethunder

Q. ) Was the BTEC National Certificate too easy? .

No they are assessd nationally and they are part of the goverments framework, so do not worry

Pridethunder

Q. ) How difficult are degrees as opposed to HND's or Foundation Degrees? .

A foundation degree is basically getting you to A-level standard and ready for uni, usually for people wanting to do a degree in a subject they didnt do at school or did worse than expected. A HND is equivalennt to the first 2 years at uni. Most places that do HNDs enable you to "top up" to a degree if you are at a good standard after 2 years.

Pridethunder

Q. ) What exactly are Foundation Degrees?
.

see above.

IMHO I would say apply for the degree see how you get on, and I am sure if you are struggling you will be able to change and just do the HND.

or other way round register for HND, if you are enjoying it and wish to continue upgrade.

I would stay away from the foundation, unless you are changing subjects

Reply 6

Pridethunder

OP

flexiblefish

No they are assessd nationally and they are part of the goverments framework, so do not worry

A foundation degree is basically getting you to A-level standard and ready for uni, usually for people wanting to do a degree in a subject they didnt do at school or did worse than expected. A HND is equivalennt to the first 2 years at uni. Most places that do HNDs enable you to "top up" to a degree if you are at a good standard after 2 years.

see above.

IMHO I would say apply for the degree see how you get on, and I am sure if you are struggling you will be able to change and just do the HND.

or other way round register for HND, if you are enjoying it and wish to continue upgrade.

I would stay away from the foundation, unless you are changing subjects

Smashing reply. Much appreciated.

Reply 7

robert1987

A foundation degree lasts for two years and can, like an HND be topped up to a full degree. However it also comprises some workplace based learning aswell as study. I'm applying for one in Railway Engineering where seven months of each year is spent at uni, with the remaining five spent in the workplace.

A foundation year is what you do to prepare for a degree if you have the "wrong" A Levels for that particular course.

They're not the same, but easily confused admittedly!

Reply 8

INTit

17

I did the Btec National Diploma I.T practioners(DDM) - same as certificate but more units, and am at uni doing a Bsc Computer Science.

I don't think it was too easy, it does provide you with a good grounding for some of the first modules. However the programming side of the ND was severely lacking when compared to what is expected of you on the first year of the degree, so get some practise in with Java before you start.

Reply 9

Severo

INTit

I did the Btec National Diploma I.T practioners(DDM) - same as certificate but more units, and am at uni doing a Bsc Computer Science.

I don't think it was too easy, it does provide you with a good grounding for some of the first modules. However the programming side of the ND was severely lacking when compared to what is expected of you on the first year of the degree, so get some practise in with Java before you start.

I wouldn't have thought so as most universities will treat you as though you have absolutely no programming experience at all, whether or not you have done a BTEC National Diploma in IT Practitioners. A reason they could do this for is because colleges in my experience teach out-dated technology, for example my web development module taught me no HTML but frames.

Universities for Computer Science tend to tell people to forget what they learnt about programming concepts as you will all be taught from the same level (generally - I know of a few exceptions) so it doesn't matter if you can't write a Hello World application, although it's helpful to know some programming.

Degree difficulty, Foundation Degrees and BTEC National Certs - oh my

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