What if your university said no?
Can you get to medicine through college? What is a difference between?
High school graduates in the UK have more options ahead comparing to students in other countries; you can either find a job right away, enrol a further education course or move up directly to higher education. On an individual level university is seen as a primarily mechanism for improving employment prospects, there is an underlying belief that universities help to get a better job and somewhat undermined students who started a higher education with other schools. A hidden fear is related to misapprehension of what a college education is and what offers comparing to universities, therefore it’s not surprising if you face possibility of being stripped of such opportunity you may feel unsure of your future and don’t see yourself anywhere else.
What university means in the UK?
What is understandable, in the UK there is no such thing as an accreditation system, a higher education institution obtains its title university by assuring certain education qualities. The authority known as the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and a group of licensed examiners are in charge of controlling, measuring, and specifying these education standards. In principle, they don’t assess individual courses of UK universities but tend to concentrate more on the overall system of education applied to students.
Typically, study programs at UK universities lead to undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, however it’s worth to note that some universities run colleges, which offer further education courses like a foundation degree to prepare students to enter the regular university degrees. In a case of universities you are able to choose between Russell Group (RG) and non - RG schools.
The Russell Group consists of 24 prestigious universities who all play a significant role in the cultural and economic life of the UK, and all share a common characteristic, which are focus on producing leading research and maintaining a consistent reputation for strong academic achievements. Some of them include the world -renowned Oxford, Cambridge, London School of Economics (LSE), and Durham. Given their reputability, RG universities tend to have very rigorous admissions criteria, their entry requirements are often higher than those of other universities, leading to a competitive admission process, especially for the more highly sought - after specialization, like medicine, sciences, economics, and law.
Despite the Russell Group’s popularity for both British and international students alike, there are approximately 106 other universities in the UK outside of the group that perform equally as well and, on some occasions, even better, they are known for their academic excellence, teaching and employability rates, and offer unique courses. Notable names such as St. Andrews, and Bath rank consistently high in league tables each year, yet they are not part of the Russell Group, but they are often mistaken to be, because of their outstanding performance and provision of excellent quality education.
What if you want to apply to a non-Russell group university?
In a situation when a Russell Group (RG) university declined your application, you are still able to apply for medicine at other university, which doesn’t belong to the RG group. Non-Russell Group universities are often more flexible than their highly selective RG rivals, usually having lower entry requirements. Non-RG universities are often less rigidity and, in some cases, more willingness to consider applicants who fall short by a few marks or have complicated cases with their grades and educational background. Certainly this depends on the degree, some courses still have high entry requirements, but they tend to be more realistic or achievable, whilst St. Andrews require AAA-AAB for medicine, Imperial – a Russell Group university – requires A*AA-AAA for the same degree!
Additionally, universities non-RG are often happy to consider late applicants (aside from UCAS Clearing) and this is due to non-Russell Group universities usually still having spaces available, unlikely at Russell Group universities, which are oversubscribed, making chances of available spaces after initial admission deadlines small. We cannot forget that a quality of education of non-RG universities is under control of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) proving that students who question their chances to get to RG group universities and scared that they will end up with no job, with non-RG universities they still have chances for higher education and get reputable degrees.
What if there is no other option than college?
College by many is seen as a Plan B, the fallback option, but truth is college should be seen as a Plan A – expressly pathway to medical degree. It’s a great stepping stone between school and university, for example if you study an HNC or HND at college you can move directly into year two or three at university, depending on the course and grades you achieve at college. I mentioned before that many colleges are part of universities, which means chances to get to the school you wanted is still on the plate.
For sure, you heard the same slogan over and over again that universities are royalties of an education and colleges are only a vocational one, for less gifted - you can just go to college to train as a plumber, mechanic, or decorator. It’s far away from the truth – again, colleges offer a wide range of more academic courses at Further Education and Higher Education level, for example the Edinburgh College, which has a number of degree programs, in partnership with universities, such as the University of Aberdeen, University of Abertay, Edinburgh Napier University.
If concerns about college are also related to a problem with age, because you and your parents think all students start higher education at age 18 and no later, therefore for medicine or science you will be too old is false. Although the majority of students are straight out of schools, there are plenty of older students at university and college. Foundation courses we were talking about previously, are four years instead of three, which means some students start their degrees a year later, aiming to gain their dreamed degree later.
Schools like Edinburgh College offers access to Medical Studies (SWAP), full-time course lasting one academic year. This course is designed to prepare you for further study of medicine or dentistry at a university degree level. You will learn a combination of academic units such as Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics taught at HNC and HND level. These units will give you the core skills needed to apply for a place at The University of Edinburgh, The University of Aberdeen on their undergraduate Medicine (MBChB) degree or a place on the undergraduate Dentistry BDS at University of Dundee.
Green Templeton in Oxford offers Clinical Medicine Courses, with entry requirements similar to the University of Oxford with no less an education quality, and Management in Medicine, which help with developing management and leadership skills for health and care systems in early career.
Harris Manchester College offers four years the accelerated course, with the first two years of the course are spent covering both basic science and clinical skills. Integration with the standard six-year medical course begins in the second year of the graduate entry course and is complete for the final two years. The four-year course places a strong emphasis on the scientific basis of medical practice and is particularly suitable for those who wish to consider a clinical academic career pathway, straight from the college.
A medical course at the Worcester College comprises two components, the first concerned with basic understanding of physiological sciences necessary for later clinical work, and the second with more advanced study of optional subjects allowing a more critical approach to published scientific work. After completing the 3-year BA in Medical Sciences, the graduate makes a separate application either to the Oxford Clinical School, in which case they remain at Worcester, or to another clinical school, such as those at London or Cambridge.
St. Hugh’s College has in its program a standard medical course and graduate one (offers up to three places each year on the graduate-entry Medical course), on which most students undertake a practical research project and First BM Examinations in basic medical sciences followed by nearly four terms of advanced study of a selected biomedical option. After completion of the Honours School and a short Clinical Anatomy course, students go on to study clinical medicine and most students opt to stay at St. Hugh’s for their three clinical years.
What if you decided - no college?
There are few options you can consider, if you want to go straight at the university. After you’ve graduated from a different degree, if you are still decided on a career in medicine, you can apply as a graduate. And again, graduate entry programs allow you to complete a medical degree in four years rather than five, which is obviously a good thing if you’re eager to get into practicing as a doctor. If you didn’t make the grades first time around for example, you could complete an undergraduate degree by 21, and then graduate as a doctor at 25, only two years behind those that started at 18, with all the extra experience and opportunities to boot. But of course, the ultimate positive from a graduate-entry scheme is that at the end of it, you’ll get to be a doctor.
In a case when you were not successful at getting into a medical school at the university and you decided that a foundation courses from colleges are not for you, there are a lot of choices, alternatives to medicine, which can lead to fulfilling careers. It includes a specialist aspect of science or a joint degree, a healthcare scientist, who helps to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness using their knowledge of science and their technical skills, pharmacist pathway, nursing pathway, or even clinical psychology or become allied health professional.
But when you don’t want any alternative pathways and if you believe that university is the only way for you to succeed in medicine, you can always resit you’re test, but you need to be aware there are universities which don’t accept students who retake their exams. It seems unfair, especially when other schools also expect higher grades from people who decided of retakes. In this situation, to impress universities, a strong Personal Statement is even more important, convincing universities by writing about your commitment to the medicine, including mentioning any part time and voluntary jobs related to medical field.
Verdict?
There is a stigma around a higher education, many believe that the only way to achieve a stable work position is by going to university and get a degree, but at the moment students should realize that they do not need to go down the university route to be successful. It’s true that medicine is one of the most highly selective, not to mention competitive degrees you can choose to study. Not only is the UCAS deadline for Medical School much earlier than most degrees, it also requires a well-written statement, as well as success at medical entrance exams and interviews.
However, this popular choice of career now has even more routes into it in addition to the traditional undergraduate pathway, allowing more aspiring medics to pursue this challenging and high-profile career. It’s very reasonable to be concerned about the future if many universities said no to your application, so it’s great to know different options, with the same level of education, allow you to work your way through the qualifications to the highest level, to reach medicine in other way than academic one, options which don’t require from you to give up.
Sources:
https://issuu.com/universitiesuk/docs/public-perceptions-uk-universities-
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/special-features/biggest-myths-applying-going-university-19411924