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University flexibility?

Hi,
Looking at Newcastle & Liverpool for AAA-ABB for a Politics and International Relations degree.
How flexible are these universities?
How competitive are these degrees?
Thanks!

Reply 1

999tigger

Original post by mattlcfc

Hi,
Looking at Newcastle & Liverpool for AAA-ABB for a Politics and International Relations degree.
How flexible are these universities?
How competitive are these degrees?
Thanks!

What do you mean by flecible. They will make an offer and depending on competition that year they may accept 1 or even 2 grades below, but varies from year to year. You cna do an FOI request or look at unistats to find out what grades were accepted.

How likely is this

Original post by mattlcfc

Hi,
Looking at Newcastle & Liverpool for AAA-ABB for a Politics and International Relations degree.
How flexible are these universities?
How competitive are these degrees?
Thanks!

If you mean flexible in terms of entry grades, I think Liverpool went down to BBB - BBC for some of its ABB degrees this year in Clearing, but I'm not sure if P&IR was included in these as it's probably one of their more competitive programmes. It was certainly accepting students for a number of humanities courses with 2 grades lower than the original entry requirements. I'm not sure about Newcastle, however.

Reply 4

mattlcfc

Original post by Edminzodo

Thanks for the reply mate. How competitive would you say politics and IR is?

Reply 5

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by mattlcfc

Thanks for the reply mate. How competitive would you say politics and IR is?

No problems. I can't say specifically, but if you are predicted on or over the entrance requirements, and have a decent personal statement, then I think you'd have a pretty high chance. This is the same at most universities, however. Are your predictions in line with the requirements?

Reply 6

harrysbar

Original post by mattlcfc

Hi,
Looking at Newcastle & Liverpool for AAA-ABB for a Politics and International Relations degree.
How flexible are these universities?
How competitive are these degrees?
Thanks!

Newcastle was in Clearing for Law this year (which is competitive) - don't know about Politics & IR but you could email their Admissions and ask? I know they went down to ABB in Law (from AAA).

Liverpool was only in early Clearing for Law but gave places to people achieving around BBB/BBC (existing applicants). They have often been in Clearing for various subjects so I wouldn't say they are that competitive

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 7

returnmigrant

Btw - just bear in mind that 'what happened last year' will not tell you anything about what any Uni might do THIS year.

For leading Unis like Newcastle and Liverpool they might make you an offer if your predictions are one grade below their requirements. That offer will be for the grades stated. They might accept you in August with lower grades than that - but on the other hand they might not.

The usual advice about your 5 choices is this :
1 'risky' choice - just above your predicted grades
2 or 3 - at your predicted grades
1 or 2 - below your predicted grade

So you could risk one choice above your grades, but you do need to make the other choices more realistic.

Reply 8

harrysbar

What happened last year does not guarantee anything I agree, but it is still a bit of an indicator - like Liverpool have had vacancies for all sorts of courses for as long as I can remember in Clearing, even when it was a much tougher market for students.

Newcastle would be riskier and probably a more aspirational choice that OP might just get lucky with

Reply 9

mattlcfc

Hi, thank you all for the replies. Unfortunately I don’t have time to quote you all but it’s really helpful advice.

I actually went to the Newcastle open day - they said that subject to students putting them as a firm choice they’d be fairly likely to be flexible.
On their website they have “AAA-ABB”. For me, my aspiration is ABB in Politics, History and Geography and thus will probably be predicted this. However, I think that BBB/BBC is more likely as stated above ABB is merely an aspirational target.

Obviously with university applicants declining and A-Levels becoming harder id imagine universities would be more likely to be flexible.
So essentially Liverpool would be more likely to be flexible than Newcastle?
Additionally, surely with the affairs in politics right now degrees in Politics and IR would become more competitive though?

Reply 10

returnmigrant

The only way you will get an answer to this is by phoning both Liverpool and Newcastle.

We have given you advice - but we dont work for Admissions at these Unis.

Reply 11

mattlcfc

Original post by returnmigrant

The only way you will get an answer to this is by phoning both Liverpool and Newcastle.

We have given you advice - but we dont work for Admissions at these Unis.

Are these helpful? I have always been sceptical what with them wanting to surely ensure that their students meet their initial entry requirements

Reply 12

Quick-use

Original post by mattlcfc

Are these helpful? I have always been sceptical what with them wanting to surely ensure that their students meet their initial entry requirements

Just email them. They'll give you an honest answer.

Reply 13

mattlcfc

Hang on do uni of Liverpool even offer politics and International relations? Can’t seem to find it on their website

Reply 14

harrysbar

After all that :rolleyes:

Reply 15

mattlcfc

Original post by harrysbar

After all that :rolleyes:

Do they?

Reply 16

Sandtrooper

Volunteer Team

Original post by harrysbar

After all that :rolleyes:

Original post by mattlcfc

Do they?

The degree is called 'International Politics and Policy'. Slightly different name but similar degree. Make sure it's still what you want before you apply, though!

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/international-politics-and-policy-ba-hons/overview/