Retake year but nothing to do till resit

To break down my current situation right now, I am an international Third Year pharmacy student that is currently studying in the UK. I was supposed to go into my Fourth year this September. However, the requirement to proceed was that I pass everything from my written to my coursework to my OSCEs. I passed all of it except one station of my OSCE which is a 10 minute assessment of pharmacy practice. With this, the school has told me that I am required to sit out an entire year and wait for the resit which is in next May.

Now, I can understand that I have failed the requirement so I will not argue or appeal as it was my own fault at not passing. But the situation is that I am an international student studying in the UK, which means that I have a Tier 4 visa which was eligible for community pharmacy work.

However, the school has just informed me that they have withdrawn my visa and that I am no longer allowed to be in the UK until the date of my resit because I am now registered as an "exam-only" student which means I do not have to retake any lectures, coursework or labs because like I mentioned before, I did not fail those, I just failed an OSCE station. The year long idleness have caused the school to revoke my visa. This is really shocking to me.

This would mean that I would have basically nothing to do and cannot return to the UK until my resit has come. I really don't want this. Since I was made to retake the year, I would at least think that the logical choice would be to work in a community pharmacy to enhance my competency skills and at least make an effort to improve myself for my resit all the way in May. All in all, it is a 10 minute assessment on a mock situation of BEING A PHARMACIST IN A PHARMACY, what better way to ensure that I don't screw up the next resit by practicing it for 9 months?

Man, I could really use some pointers on my current situation because right now, I am super lost that a small assessment snowballed me into being barred from entering the UK.

PS: In case the idea of working back in my home country popped up, I don't exactly come from a country where the pharmacy regulations etc is up to par with the UK so I was refraining myself from seeing that as a solution.

Reply 1

gutenberg

I don't know much about pharmacy specifically (sorry), but I will say that the revoking of your visa was likely something your university had very little, if no, control over. The Home Office has become much stricter in recent years (see discussions about the 'hostile environment' policy), and also requires universities to more closely monitor international students' attendance and so forth. If you are not attending lectures or other academic activities, then the university likely can't continue to support you until you are back studying 'full time', if that makes sense.

It's a really crappy situation, and I'm very sorry about the enforced year out. I think trying to find relevant work experience either in your own country, or elsewhere where you'd be permitted to work, seems the best solution at present.

Reply 2

EffThis012

I just read up a bit more on this and from what I am understanding, since I am not required to attend any classes, this is marked as re-sitting a year EXTERNALLY. With this, they barred off my Tier 4 Visa and required me to leave the country within 60 days. Man, that sounds like a huge punishment for failing a 10 minute assessment. What would be of my belongings and bank accounts and stuff? Oh boy