no qualifications mature student wanting to studyat uni..how?

jeffy22

Hi
I wonder if anyone can give me some advice…
I’m writing on behalf of my friend. He would love to go you uni to study astrophysics.
He is obsessed with anything to do with space and the universe and reads books and books on the subject. Unfortunately he had a bit of a bad start in life. He is 29 and did not have much schooling and has drifted from job to job. I’ve been telling him how intelligent he is and he deserves to study as much as anyone else... he just needs a chance... I know he would be very successful if he could just get on a course. He has no savings and few GCSE’s but is there anyway he could get onto a course as a mature student? He’s not afraid of hard work and working towards a goal. How could he go about working towards his dream? Are grants or scholarships available?

Thank you for any advice

Voyager2002

Lack of savings is not a problem: as a mature student he would be eligible for grants and loans if a university were to offer him a place.

However, Astrophysics at university level uses a great deal of extremely complicated Mathematics. Very few people would be able to make sense of the first year without knowing and understanding the content of an A2 Further Mathematics course. He would therefore need to do a Mathematics-focused Access course or perhaps an OU foundation course before beginning a degree course.

mammyof7

Astrophysics wow! When I did my access course a few years back I'm almost sure it was free if you didn't have a level 2 qualification and a reduced fee if you had no level 3.

As for university there are plenty of finance options available and I think most uni's also provide a bursary (mine does).

redmel1621

Certain universities/courses, link with the OU.. so you do a year or two with the OU before moving onto the 2nd year of a brick Uni.. I know my husnabd looked into it as he is studying physics with the OU, but he has decided to stay with them rather than move.

He would definitely need a good grounding in maths and so maybe a couple of OU modules first... They would put him in with a great chance of being accepted onto the course xx

V_Chic_Chick

I'd suggest an access course too - they're one year courses run by local colleges which are designed for people in exactly your friend's situation

dizzyrascal

redmel1621 wrote: »

Certain universities/courses, link with the OU.. so you do a year or two with the OU before moving onto the 2nd year of a brick Uni.. I know my husnabd looked into it as he is studying physics with the OU, but he has decided to stay with them rather than move.

He would definitely need a good grounding in maths and so maybe a couple of OU modules first... They would put him in with a great chance of being accepted onto the course xx

Unless the course is one where the awarding body is the OU, this is not a simple as you make it sound.
Anyone who studies at degree level can (in theory) take the credits they have earned and ask them to be taken on by another university.
The new university will assess the content of the modules studied and award a credit transfer figure. This figure may be well below the credits you already have. This is because they can only award degrees on courses very similar to their own.
If you did history (for instance) it would be likely that you would get a full credit transfer as most universities will cover similar topics and have a lot of modules that you can elect to do. They may insist that you do some of their core modules to get a named degree though
For astrophysics I'm sure there will be the opportunity to transfer but again you might have to take some of their core stuff. It is likely to have a maths module that will be at a fairly high standard.

The OU do an natural sciences degree which will have a broader range of topics but that can often be seen as a good thing. They are often inter-disciplinary courses which means that you get a glimpse of a few related subjects. So you might do a bit of geography, chemistry, physics etc. in the beginning (this can be very useful if you have been out of education for a while)
I notice that you can now take a specific pathway BSc (Honours) Natural Sciences: Astronomy and planetary science pathway

If your friend feels up to it then they should go for it. My only proviso would be is that if the friend wants to work in this field an undergraduate degree will not be enough. They will need advanced degrees to turn it into a career.

jaxjax123

I am a mature student and I too had very little in the way qualifications. I am studying Environmental science. I was able to do it through a foundation year that the university has.
If your friend has a uni in mind it may be worth approaching them to see if they have anything like that. Yes it has made my degree a year longer but it was really worth it.

snackjack

I'm a mature student at uni now. I had no qualifications. I did an access course at my local college. I had to pay, but it was a reduced rate of about £40 for the course. The access course was aimed/linked with my uni course. Eg, health and social care access course was aimed at any one of the health and social care degrees. My local college does a few access courses. Its also good as some of the people you meet at college go on to go to the same uni as you, making it slightly less daunting!