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Not sure what to do

Hi there,

I am new to this website, this is my first post.. I did not realize how large this website is, so I apologise if I am posting on the wrong page and I hope someone can redirect me if it's better to post this elsewhere? :smile:

I am 23 years old from Canada living here on an Ancestry Visa (moved here when I was 20). Should all go well with the paperwork etc, I will become a permanent resident in the country sometime around end of September or October 2020, when I am 25 years old. This means for schooling purposes I am considered an international student and have to pay international tuition which would cost heaps getting a loan from Canada and so forth until I become a permanent resident and at that point considered a domestic student.

I would like to return to school and get a degree, which I will be able to do so when I get my PR here, but unfortunately do not have really good grades from High school back in Canada (I will not return there). So I am trying to prepare as best I can for when the time comes.

Given that I am not from the country, I struggle to understand the education system here and what I can do to get the grades I need for University. In Canada it is as simple as redoing your highschool courses for free to get the grades you need! :biggrin:

I have read two different things now.. something along the lines of doing an access to HE course, or re-sitting A Levels? I guess given that I am still considered an international student until I get my PR at 25 I will have to pay a lot for these.

I am wondering what the cheapest possible option is for upgrading and what exactly it is I will need to do if I would like to pursue a Bachelor's degree for Psychologyin the UK (with the intent of going further than that, as I hear just a BA/Bsc in Psych does not really set you up for a lot in life career wise?)

Thank you so much.

Reply 1

AmeliaLost

Hey @overkrypton! Most unis would expect recent study (i.e. within prev 3 years) so most mature students do an access course to gain admittance. Benefit of these is that you're studying with other mature students, and they only take a year to complete rather than two for a-levels. For a science based access course the cost would be in the region of £3.5k.

You'd also need the equivalent of GCSEs (a quick google suggests that's Canadian year 11?) at grade B or C (depending on uni) in English Language and Maths. If you don't have that then you'd likely need to take those too, no idea how much they might cost you though as they're always free to UK citizens.

Hope that helps. There's a whole mature students section here. Might be worth searching the forum for more information too :h: