The Student Room Group

Will universities accept me?

I have an unexpunged academic misconduct offence at my current university.. am thinking of dropping out. My uni gave me a penalty but I think id rather drop out and apply to another uni but what are the chances that other unis would accept me?
Original post by Anonymous
I have an unexpunged academic misconduct offence at my current university.. am thinking of dropping out. My uni gave me a penalty but I think id rather drop out and apply to another uni but what are the chances that other unis would accept me?

If you're thinking of dropping out and starting again at a new university in an attempt to leave your prior academic misconduct behind you, I suspect you're going to be disappointed. Any university to which you apply will want to receive a reference from your current university, which will be honour-bound to mention the academic misconduct in that reference.

Whether or not the new university decides to offer you a place anyway depends very much on how oversubscribed that university / course it. They may be so keen to attract students, that they'll overlook the issue. Or they might not.

What's the penalty from your current university? Why not just take the penalty and continue there, thus avoiding wasn't a year (and the associated money), and avoiding the need to settle into a new uni in September?
Reply 2
Original post by DataVenia
If you're thinking of dropping out and starting again at a new university in an attempt to leave your prior academic misconduct behind you, I suspect you're going to be disappointed. Any university to which you apply will want to receive a reference from your current university, which will be honour-bound to mention the academic misconduct in that reference.
Whether or not the new university decides to offer you a place anyway depends very much on how oversubscribed that university / course it. They may be so keen to attract students, that they'll overlook the issue. Or they might not.
What's the penalty from your current university? Why not just take the penalty and continue there, thus avoiding wasn't a year (and the associated money), and avoiding the need to settle into a new uni in September?


The penalty is redoing second year all modules capped at 40 at my own cost. I don’t want to do it because job prospects with a 3rd class degree will be hard..
Reply 3
Original post by DataVenia
If you're thinking of dropping out and starting again at a new university in an attempt to leave your prior academic misconduct behind you, I suspect you're going to be disappointed. Any university to which you apply will want to receive a reference from your current university, which will be honour-bound to mention the academic misconduct in that reference.
Whether or not the new university decides to offer you a place anyway depends very much on how oversubscribed that university / course it. They may be so keen to attract students, that they'll overlook the issue. Or they might not.
What's the penalty from your current university? Why not just take the penalty and continue there, thus avoiding wasn't a year (and the associated money), and avoiding the need to settle into a new uni in September?


I can explain why the misconduct happened though which is why the university didn’t expel me - they took into account the situation it happened in and my mitigating circumstances. I can assure the other universities it won’t happen again..
Original post by Anonymous
The penalty is redoing second year all modules capped at 40 at my own cost. I don’t want to do it because job prospects with a 3rd class degree will be hard..

Wow, that's quite a penalty!

Original post by Anonymous
I can explain why the misconduct happened though which is why the university didn’t expel me - they took into account the situation it happened in and my mitigating circumstances. I can assure the other universities it won’t happen again..

OK. I hope your prospective new universities give the the opportunity to explain this.
Original post by Anonymous
The penalty is redoing second year all modules capped at 40 at my own cost. I don’t want to do it because job prospects with a 3rd class degree will be hard..


Original post by Anonymous
I can explain why the misconduct happened though which is why the university didn’t expel me - they took into account the situation it happened in and my mitigating circumstances. I can assure the other universities it won’t happen again..

Based on your comments here it sounds like the misconduct was very severe if potential expulsion was on the table and the "lighter" penalty is a repeat year with all modules capped. I suspect other universities are going to be concerned by whatever it was even if there were some kind of mitigation which lead to the "lighter" penalty.

In terms of it being at your own cost, if you're a home fees student funded by SFE then that's not really their decision, that's up to SFE to determine your funding entitlement. If you're an international student then normally things are at your own cost anyway...? Note also if you're currently in second year and being funded by SFE, starting in a new course from first year will mean you won't have full funding available anyway and will need to self fund at least one year in the new course regardless (and as noted if you're an international student you'd be funding the whole thing at own cost anyway normally...?).

As for your degree results, it may still be in principle possible to achieve a 2:2 or 2:1 depending on the relative weightings of each year and your performance in third year. Usually third year is weighted more heavily, but the exact weightings will vary between universities and courses. However for example if your course weighted third year at 0.6 and second year at 0.4, you could potentially achieve a (minimal) 2:1 if you achieved an average of 74% in third year, with 40% in second year. Certainly a tall order but not impossible.
Reply 6
Original post by Anonymous
The penalty is redoing second year all modules capped at 40 at my own cost. I don’t want to do it because job prospects with a 3rd class degree will be hard..

To follow on from what @artful_lounger wrote, you need to look to see how your university calculates the final degree classification -- be aware that you'll need to check the regulations for your specific programme, it won't necessarily be calculated in the same way for every programme.

The worst case scenario is that your 2nd year and your final year are weighted equally. In this case you'd need to get 60% in your final year to get a 50% overall (and a 2:2); or 80% in your final year to get 60% overall (and hence a 2:1).

For a 40:60 split you'd need 57% for a 2:2 or 74% for a 2:1

For a 1:2 split you'd need 55% for a 2:2 or 70% for 2:1

For a 30:70 split you'd need 55% for a 2:2 or 69% for a 2:1

For a 25:75 split you'd need 54% for 2:2 or 67% for a 2:1

For a 20:80 split you'd need 53% for a 2:1 or 65% for a 2:1

... so if you can produce 1st class work in your final year, a 2:1 overall might still be achievable, depending on exactly how your programme is weighted.
Reply 7
Original post by martin7
To follow on from what @artful_lounger wrote, you need to look to see how your university calculates the final degree classification -- be aware that you'll need to check the regulations for your specific programme, it won't necessarily be calculated in the same way for every programme.
The worst case scenario is that your 2nd year and your final year are weighted equally. In this case you'd need to get 60% in your final year to get a 50% overall (and a 2:2); or 80% in your final year to get 60% overall (and hence a 2:1).
For a 40:60 split you'd need 57% for a 2:2 or 74% for a 2:1
For a 1:2 split you'd need 55% for a 2:2 or 70% for 2:1
For a 30:70 split you'd need 55% for a 2:2 or 69% for a 2:1
For a 25:75 split you'd need 54% for 2:2 or 67% for a 2:1
For a 20:80 split you'd need 53% for a 2:1 or 65% for a 2:1
... so if you can produce 1st class work in your final year, a 2:1 overall might still be achievable, depending on exactly how your programme is weighted.


Yes thanks very much I’ve already emailed them and asked this. The weighting is 1:2 across 2nd and 3rd year. this does make things a little bit better but having to redo second year and put all that money in again is what’s putting me off. Thanks for the advice though
Reply 8
Original post by Anonymous
Yes thanks very much I’ve already emailed them and asked this. The weighting is 1:2 across 2nd and 3rd year. this does make things a little bit better but having to redo second year and put all that money in again is what’s putting me off. Thanks for the advice though

As mentioned previously -- assuming you're eligible for the student loan system and haven't used your "gift year" already, then I would expect that you'd have your tuition fees paid and still get a maintenance loan.

You've said before that the university have said that this will be "at your own expense" -- my take on that is that what they really mean to say is that they'll need to paid for the resit year, and that they're not giving it to you for free. (In some cases a university might allow you to re-do a year "exams only" -- but in your case they'll being requiring your attendance and hence expecting tuition fees to be paid.)

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