To think it's wrong that Dance and Drama students get so much help with degree costs?

[Serin]

When everyone else has to pay £9000 a year and then living costs.
If the government has money to fund some courses why not use it to fund nursing students?
www.gov.uk/dance-drama-awards

Do we have a chronic shortage of actors?

Katymac, a level 6 diploma is not the same as A levels. It is a degree level qualification. Degrees don't all happen 18 to 21, students can be younger or older. It is the level of the qualification that makes it degree equivalent, not the age of the student.

The difference for nursing and other degrees is they work on the wards for half the year, they don't do 30 weeks a year they do 46 weeks so they can't work much in the holidays to supplement their loans. On placement they still have to do essays, study for exams etc so not like other degrees and again it makes part-time jobs hard to fit in. This applies to other HCP degrees e.g. midwives. A third year student working on the wards is paying for the privilege and hospitals couldn't cope without them. It is a disgrace.

Basket, the number of people on here saying a Level 5 or 6 qualification is the same as A levels is definitely not true. Give the students doing these qualifications the credit for the level they are studying at, pretending it is A levels just isn't true.

granny, you know how I spent my summers as a student? Various workshops, fringe festival (exposure), dance intensives, voice training etc. It's the same. It's just a different kind of intense.

Katymac is incredibly experienced in this stuff. I don't think she needs you to tell her how her daughter's course works!

Again, what are your experiences of performing arts? Besides that you watched Line of Duty the other night please don't patronise those of us who work in this industry.

Basket so are you saying the course Ovaries did doesn't exist anymore or that she is making it up? There seems to be alot of fake news on this thread but I can't imagine why Ovaries would say she did a degree that didn't exist.

Oh so this wasn't about me? Glad I'm off the hook on the fake news!

I'm so confused. A few pages back granny had the levels thing in a muddle, now she's having a go at the people who don't understand the levels?

OMG I just watched the first ep of Line of Duty last night

Thandie Newton is definitely trying to bring down the NHS. It's the stillness. She'd take out a whole maternity wing with that stillness. As for Vicky McClure - clearly she's on a mission to bring state-funded podiatry down.

Lonny everything you possibly need to know about working in the industry all contained in one episode, right? Same with Doctor Who we don't know what we're talking about, us lot.

Serin, of everything to get hot under the collar about at the moment, this is an odd one.
At least being a nurse affords you a career structure and a degree of certainty which cannot be said for budding actors, dancers and musicians. Total respect for nurses but you're trying to compare apples and pears here.

Lonny to be fair I've worked with dancers who've probably been responsible for over stretching the NHS songlehandedly - clumsy lot, they're worse than horses!

I know, dancers just can't ... walk? Give them space to travel and all is well but trotting round Sainsbos and they're falling into the fridges.

Gaelic so good. I'm going to have to get DH to watch it tonight so I can binge the rest of the season.

And YET - to continue the theme of the thread despite my own attempts to derail, Thandie is not a theatre actress and in fact studied dance at Tring, of all places.
death and the maiden review

I never said it was the same as alevels

I said that at 16 my daughter has no other suitable course to go on for her career.

A level 3 btec that encompasses the wide range of genre at a high enough level for the ordinary recreational dancer doesn't exist - the current btsc requires little if any dance experience so would be pointless for anyone embarking on a career

There are a few dance school led btecs but they are few and far between - none in my county but a good one is stageworks but they can be as hard to get onto as a level 6 still need accommodation & you still have to do a level 6 afterwards

So starting your (very short) career at 21 instead of 19 (or 20 like my DD will). DD will end her westend career at about 30n maybe 35 if she gets the right jobs; she will then be pretty much forced to retire and reconsider - at that point she is likely to take out a loan, do a degree (as a mature student not needing Alevels) & work in a 'proper' job like the rest of the world - just 10/12 years behind her cohort who went to uni at 18.

& oh yeah dancers don't walk, they prance & spin& stretch (& wear inappropriate clothing - leotard & tights on the tube?) & burst into song at odd moments
& cost an absolute fortune!! Next lot of tap shoes will be approx £120! Last pair were £80!!

@Serin it's very hard and I haven't read the thread I don't know if you're still active on it or if you've been given such a bbqing you've run away ...

I'm really in two minds because I think there are more important degrees people can get, but I really truly value the arts. It's more time consuming creating things then some other degrees which means less time to work a job.
I know in ireland where I used to live artists are exempt from tax... but still their cds music concerts etc or paintings shows etc will generate money for the government.

You've asked a mind boggling question .. im not sure !!!

Mine just doesn't walk, Lonny. supermarkets are handstand/leap/chasé territory.

She's 7

Should have been I am trying to stamp it out of her before she single handedly bankrupts the NHS while her mother refuses to pay back her scholarship that could have gone to something useful

TrollMummy the RAD exam grades are on the framework as follows:

Grades 4, 5 and Intermediate Foundation = Level 2
Grades 6, 7, 8, Intermediate and Advanced Found. = Level 3 (and UCAS points)
Advanced 1 & 2 = Level 4
Solo Seal = Level 5

Other examining bodies are similar.

Acceptance is by audition only. You don't have to have passed specific exam grades to be able to go to vocational dance school at 16+ but to get into one of the top ones, you are competing for places with international students and need to be working at the equivalent of Adv 1 level as an absolute minimum (girls), or you won't stand a chance. They take potential more into consideration with boys as there are fewer of them, so level isn't as vital for them.

FANTINE part of the reason for the high entry tariff for GSA (and it's a big part) is because the University of Surrey puts huge pressure on it to attract top end students. They would probably make it AAA* if they could. It's all league tables and prestige and attracting high calibre students across the university. They're sitting very comfortably near the top of the league tables at the moment and will be doing their very best to stay there.
They need money, that's what it boils down to. They need to attract international students paying international student fees and that means everything associated with the Uni has to be top end.

Sorry...GSA now being fully part of the Uni of Surrey. Before that happened...probably basic academic qualifications were required.

Aw she sounds lovely Gaelic (apart from her part in the conspiracy to crush the NHS, obvs). I'd really hoped for a theatrical one but it seems the NHS is safe in LonnyJr's hands.

OvariesBeforeBrovaries Wed 26-Apr-17 15:25:57
"The idea that you either do a practical drama school course or a theoretical drama degree isn't correct.

I did a university degree. It was hugely practical, the balance was approx 70-30 in favour of practical/vocational work. It's the reason I chose the course; the others I visited were three years of reading and watching plays. You can do practical theatre degrees without going to drama school."

Is yours a recent experience, Ovaries? Because what dd is hearing, more and more, is that her friends who went down the uni drama route are finding it very difficult to get jobs and agents compared to those who went to drama school.

Agreed Most Inept, but are they attracting high quality acting/singing students??
It seems unfair, cruel almost to say to someone, yes you are talented at performing, but you cannot be part of this course because you cannot get an A in maths, french, history etc. There is no clearing either.
It does not make sense to me at all, and I know that the reputation of GSA[not the uni of Surrey] is beginning to slip.

Cory,
There is no comparison between doing a Drama Degree, and actually training in acting/ dance/ mt.
The top drama schools arrange for their £rd students to do showcases in front of agents and casting directors. They have the pick of the emerging talent. This wouldn't happen on a uni course

Irish fairy/ Siog to the rest of you! nothing to say except brilliant user name have ya got a faine d'or?

Never let your baby girls creativity die down, foster it with all your might. It's people like your daughter that make scholarships for the arts the right choice.
From one to another xx

My husband teaches on a degree & diploma course. The diploma students get far far more contact hours. The degree course hecteaches on is a bit of an exception ascthere are 30 odd hours (four full days) but it's more of an actor/singer course with some dance.

Diploma courses you are talking 35-38 contact hours.

Most uni courses are 12-19 contact hours.

There is a lot of dis-satisfaction with GSA's admissions process at the moment.