Sunday 8 November 2015

Thoughts on university fee increase

Universities may be allowed soon to increase their fees beyond £9000 per year, subject to teaching standard monitoring. It is easy to fail to appreciate that universities did not see large increases in their revenue per student with the big increase in 2012 because this was largely caused by the withdrawal of much of the taxpayers' subsidy for Higher Education.

It seems reasonable that the universities with better teaching should command a higher price, but it will be important to follow how affordability for students from lower income households is sustained in these circumstances. Also all universities really do need to think about models of tuition which have very low contact time in terms of value for money. As always the decision to be made by future prospective applicants will be a subtle and challenging one. As much clarity of information as possible should be an essential prerequisite of any further change,

Law Apprenticeship Scheme

It is an extremely tough and to some extent risky route to approach a career in law via the university route. At some point it is essential to obtain a training contract to qualify to practice as a solicitor, and these positions are historically heavily oversubscribed.

SA Law, based in St Albans offer an alternative, which is the apprenticeship route. They are seeking to recruit two current 6th-formers. See the poster on the careers board in Common Room for more into or approach them direct via www.salaw.com

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Source of Medicine Applicants Advice

The Medic Portal contains considerable support for students considering this career :- www.themedicportal.com

EPQ gaining ground

Following on the heels of Bristol and Southampton, Birmingham University have recognised the value of students preparing for university study by taking this qualification. They have done this from 2016 by reducing their standard offer by one grade for any students who complete the EPQ and obtain an A or A* grade.

Sunday 1 November 2015

Name blind recruitment coming soon

I imagine that there are a complex set of reasons for ethnic minorities finding access to university and graduate employment careers more challenging than the average according to national statistics. However it is pleasing that there is now a co-ordinated attempt to tackle one possible cause, covered well in this article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11953841/Big-employers-agree-to-hide-names-on-graduate-job-applications-to-end-discrimination.html

Kings College Early Taster Days

We find great value in the London university degree taster programme which typically runs from Feb - July. Booking for this programme remains possible from 7/1/16 and we will promote it heavily beforehand. However Kings College have some organised ahead of the full programme, so if you are interested in Nursing, International Development or English Language and Linguistics then consider booking and attending these via the College site or google London University Tasters.