Higher Education

start here: everything you need to know about university...

Watch this video for to find out;

Is university right for you?
How to pick a course/subject
How to pick a university
Can you afford university?

Session 4.mp4

Why choose Higher Education?

Your choice of career might be a key reason in deciding whether to go into higher education and what course to take. Some careers, including medicine, dentistry, civil engineering and architecture require you to have a degree.

Other professions, such as law or even speech therapy, require you to have an additional postgraduate qualification on top of your degree before you can practice.

You may just want to study in a subject that really interests you or to broaden your knowledge in a certain area. However, studying a higher education qualification can also help you to develop skills and qualities that employers value, such as problem-solving and communication skills. This is why some job opportunities only require you to have studied at degree level rather than any particular subject degree as they understand the benefits of studying at that level.

It can be helpful to have a career path in mind before choosing a course to study, our careers team support our students through this research and preparation so that they are making as educated an opinion as possible!

WHAT IS UCAS?

UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. It is the centralised service that students use to apply to university. Everyone who wants to study an undergraduate degree in the UK will have to apply through UCAS.

This online platform stores all of the elements of a university application together, including personal details, qualifications, university choices and personal statements. This prevents different elements being lost, and also allows us to monitor our student applications to ensure that none are lost and deadlines are met.

To start exploring UCAS, click here!

GET A LOWER GRADE OFFER!

What is Widening Participation (WP)?

The aim of widening participation is to raise aspirations and educational attainment of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, lower income households and other under represented groups to:

prepare them for higher education
ensure success on their programme of study
improve their employment prospects

The various schemes available encourage and support students through reduced offers of up to three grades, residential schemes, university taster sessions, e-mentoring and more.

Click here for more information on access schemes for various universities.

Worried about finance?

Your choice of career might be a key reason in deciding whether to go into higher education and what course to take. Some careers, including medicine, dentistry, civil engineering and architecture require you to have a degree.

Other professions, such as law or even speech therapy, require you to have an additional postgraduate qualification on top of your degree before you can practice.

You may just want to study in a subject that really interests you or to broaden your knowledge in a certain area. However, studying a higher education qualification can also help you to develop skills and qualities that employers value, such as problem-solving and communication skills. This is why some job opportunities only require you to have studied at degree level rather than any particular subject degree as they understand the benefits of studying at that level.

It can be helpful to have a career path in mind before choosing a course to study, our careers team support our students through this research and preparation so that they are making as educated an opinion as possible!

Applying to university in USA, Canada and Europe

Click here for further information from 'The University Guys'

Click here for further information from UCAS

Unifrog also has a wealth of resources on applying to universities abroad and you can start drafting your applications there. From their home page scroll down to 'Searching for opportunities' and let your imagination run wild!

UCAS Tariff Points

Every grade is worth a certain number of tariff points. Some universities use tariff points (click here) instead of grades to give you some flexibility - for example instead of asking for BBB, they might ask for 120 points. Then you could get in with BBB or ABC.

how else can i study a higher level qualification?

There are many different routes now available to move into higher education from the traditional university pathways. Here Newcastle College talk about their higher education offer, which is similar to other local colleges in the area.