Advice needed on how to change university after the first year

[ThankyoThingies]

Long story but my child is very close to dropping out of university just now.
They are autistic but at home seemed well able to cope but didn’t settle in well to the accommodation and ended up having a breakdown when they heard flat area being horrible about them.
My child came home some weeks ago and we have worked together and with the uni (who have been fab) to get them in a place where they’ve taken most of the exams (deferred one) as they were online.
The uni allowed a room change and last week we took the child back to the university so they could finish the seminars at the end of the term.
Sadly, they couldn’t get out of the car- as soon as they saw the campus, the stress came back and we are now back at home, waiting for exam results, unsure about how important these seminars are for progression.

Mt child will get a lot of support now over the summer- mental health and autism support (we are working on it)

But they just can’t go back to that university.
How do they sort out a change in university- is it possible?!
Does anyone have experience or advice?

Sorry- I was proof reading and accidentally pressed ‘post’
They overheard their flat mates talking about them horribly.

This UCAS page should help: www.ucas.com/undergraduate/student-life/getting-student-support/changing-or-leaving-your-course

Your daughter needs to find a course that is as close as possible to what she is already doing at a similar (or lower-ranked) uni.

She'll need to talk to her personal tutor asap.

The lectures for the rest of term may be available online through a listen-again service for students?

I’m sorry your dc has had such a bad experience. For relationship/distance issues mainly, my ds did leave the first year of a Degree at the Easter break, and applied to another Uni to start another degree from scratch. Had a much better time thereafter! This was some years ago, so am struggling to remember the detail, but I think he just contacted the Admissions Tutor of the Uni/course he was interested in, and they advised him. Was a slightly different degree, and he hadn’t completed the 1st year anyway, so it was starting afresh. As your dc has hopefully passed the first year, I think it could mean they could transfer straight into 2nd year, if course is similar enough? I think contacting Admissions Tutors is your best bet. And you’d need to inform Student Finance of the change.Hope it all works out for your dc, and they find some nicer course/house mates.

What your daughter needs to do is contact the Uni she wants to go to (closest to home?) and ask Admissions if they have any spaces for 2022. If they have spaces and your daughter has the right A level grades they may be able to fit her in for September though she will probably still need to complete another UCAS form and may have to start from year 1 again.
The other thing if they don’t have spaces for 2022 is for your daughter to withdraw from her current Uni, take a Year Out and reapply through UCAS for a course starting in 2023. She will still get a student loan etc as long as she doesn’t start Year 2 at her current Uni and then drop out.

Thanks- I’ll hopefully get them to think about where next.
sadly, they got lower A level results than they should.
they had an amazing run of tests leading up to the ‘non A levels’
But the 6th form they were at averaged out all of their tests over the two year, including some taken when they were recovering from Covid (no tests at the time) in early 2020.
So instead of A Aand A, they got an A, A and a B. They refused to appeal - sadly And so some of the courses are not available.
I’m not sure if they will pass this year- got great results in the first set of exams but as the second term went on, they were really struggling.
Fingers crossed they pass this year.
I wish they had let us know how bad it had been and we and the uni could have helped.
it’s all so stressful just now.

I did this (many moons ago)
I contacted an admissions tutor at the uni I wanted to move to. He said they had places, my A Levels were fine and they would accept me provided I passed my first year at old uni.
I moved and it was much better.
No harm in asking.

if you are wanting to transfer to Year 2 at another uni they need to contact the uni they want to move to (I would contact the Admissions team in the Dept or Admissions Tutor, not the central Admissions team).

they would then tell you if it’s possible and what the requirement would be, at our uni it would normally be at least 60% overall and pass and progress to year 2 at their current uni. I do work at a top uni though.

v importantly you would also contact the Disability service and explain everything you’ve told us here to ensure support from day 1. Are you looking at a uni where dc can live at home, as not many unis offer accommodation for year 2 and it can be hard finding a private rental as normally is groups of friends from year 1 renting together?

Thanks for this.
I doubt they will get more than a pass tbh.
They did high pass and merits in the first exams but these second set are very different and they have been struggling all of the term.
When they thought they would go back and go into second year, we talked it all through and realised that they would most likely be able to compensate the second lot of exams results with the first set. Pass mark is 40% so it was felt that they would probably be ok to squeak into second year with all the support in place from the DSA eg study support and mentoring.
When the family has grown around the person with autism, it’s not always apparent how deeply affected that person is.
Sadly, I think lockdowns have had an impact.
They are very upset just now as they feel so sad and alone and lonely. They have one friend from 6th form who is in contact on the phone/ internet and a couple of other internet friends from a game they play online.

Honestly, whilst the process would be the same discount my advice about grades, unless they are hoping to move to one of the top unis the uni may take all you have said into account.

Are they planning to live at home though? this is important else the uni would be wary of history repeating itself.

Part of the problem was bullying in halls.
With a structured support, my child is as likely to be as successful as any uni student and there are laws to prevent them from being treated differently due to their disability too.

Inget what you are saying though

I am not suggesting the uni discriminate, but equally they will want to see that you can ALL put measures in place to ensure that things will be better this time. Basically, you (and DC) need to understand what happened first time around and what can be done to mitigate a repeat.

And the point about having to find private accommodation when normally it’s all arranged amongst existing friends groups still stands too, it’s likely to be even cliquier than last year . Given the circs the uni may are to exceptionally offer a place in Halls but that would be amongst first years, you would need to discuss whether this would be beneficial.

This is true. Your DC, however, does not have a right to transfer, it’s completely up to the receiving uni. It’s the original uni that can’t discriminate.

If I have you correctly, any university they now apply to are allowed to treat them differently because of the consequences of their disability, but none of them could before they had a problem or during the problem?

I can see that we all need to have an honest conversation about what next and what support looks like and that needs to be very open, but I just wasn’t aware that the next university is allowed to ‘discriminate’.

And as I said, without going into details, the other flat mates were bullying my child.

I am sorry things have been so difficult. Other Universities may decline a transfer into year 2 - maybe because of modules studied, grades achieved. Courses may also be full. Unless you are considering a specific university/course nearer to home I would build more slowly on the work you will be doing over the summer and consider a return to uni in 2023.

No, that’s not what I’m saying.

No uni is compelled to accept a transfer for any reason. They may be able to accept one if there has been a free drop outs at the end of year 1. It would be v unusual for them to accept a lower end of year result than they would expect of their own year 1s from an incoming student. No uni would accept a transfer if the reason for the failings at the uni hasn’t been addressed, whilst the bullying is awful YOU also mentioned ASD, if adequate support etc wasn’t in place how would the uni not think history would repeat itself. If the ASD is not relevant then why mention it? Whilst the uni wouldn’t turn down in the basis of needs they need to know what has been tried before and why it didn’t work to ensure they could provide adequate support. The recent Bristol case has sent shockwaves through the sector.

This is all academic though, you really need to find out whether would accept DC. And would need to look at unis that match your DC a level grades or lower given that year 1 is likely to be a bare/compensated pass.

My Dd dropped out of first year and reapplied to start a different course at a different university. The new university did want to meet her and they did ask about why she thought things would be different this time. They wanted to ensure this was right for her and that she was unlikely to drop out. Don’t forget that universities publish their drop out rate etc.

Lots of undergraduates live at home now, purely for financial reasons, so your dc might want to consider a university within travelling distance, to increase options, if living in halls/shared house doesn’t work out.

In my experience, unless you get very lucky with other people on your course or in your halls, you often need to be quite robust to survive the social maelstrom that can be university life, and that’s without people being overtly unkind, as happened to your dd.

Hi, OP -

I am a former Russell Group admissions tutor who has sat on many Mitigating Circumstances panels and while I think prospects are basically good, it isn’t necessarily going to be in the way that you expect. I am going to start by tagging @GoodThinkingMax, as she is also an academic with a lot of experience in this area.

I think your DC’s best bet by far is to apply to restart Y1. Even if they pass this year, their foundations in the subject will be shaky. Y2 is generally a big step up from Y1. Your DC is liable to anxiety and stress. Student Finance will allow this. Why would they not give themselves the best possible chance to succeed? This is a pretty common situation. Ideally the letter of reference, not the PS, should explain what happened and express a belief in the student.

Max and I know that the most common mistake students make, by far, is to compound their errors. Typically this is in the area of MH. They start by needing a few extensions for stress, before you know it they are spending their summers preparing for resits. If they are lucky these have been granted as first attempts, but that brings its own pressure. They limp along in this way until they either fail outright or achieve a lower degree classification than they could have if healthy. And they have been miserable. Starting anew on a shaky foundation seems a bad idea.

Creating a strong foundation is the key to avoiding this. In a couple of recent threads Max and I have advocated for time out. You’ve given no indication that your DC needs that although if you have concerns, Health First is definitely the way to go. And if it will take a year to get DC into a programme they are happy with, that’s fine also.

I am not sure whether retaking ALevels after a year of uni might help? Because of DC’s circumstances, if I were applying for next year and didn’t have the grades, I would contact admissions about this. (BTW such enquiries are always better received coming from the student than from their parent.)

Finally, separate from the DSA, each uni has an Office for Students with Disabilities, maybe by a different name. Some are reluctant to sign up with it. To sign up and use any help you are entitled to just levels the playing field and there are other advantages I won’t go into here. Best wishes

PS. Actually the PS should explain the circumstances briefly also. Calmly and matter of factor. Don’t dwell on them.

PPS. And the new PS should say how things have changed so the student is in a better place now

I think perhaps what a previous poster is trying to say is that any new university does not have to make allowances for mitigating circumstances, as it will be assumed the previous university should have done this. I work in University admissions and we often get requests to accept lower grades because of various reasons, however it would have been the role of the previous university to have graded these exams taking into consideration the mitigating circumstances, so we just have to take the grades as is and do not make allowances.

Transferring after first year is more common than you think. Whether that's within the university, or changing completely. However, at this stage of the year, your child does not have much time. They would need to sit and carefully think about where they want to go next, and what course. Then contact the admissions dept and ask how they can submit an application for transfer. If transferring into first year, and the A Levels meet the requirements, the grades from this year may not matter. However, if similar course they may want to see a certain average overall. Personally, it sounds like your child may benefit from a complete start over, and going into first year rather than joining second. In second it may be harder to make friends etc as many will have already formed friendships within the course.

There's a possibility your child will be told they need to wait until clearing to see what happens places are available, just depends on the popularity of the course. But given they have their A Levels already, most Universities will be happy to make a quick offer if they have the capacity.

You can ask for quieter halls, which may help or smaller halls. Some universities allow this.
Also on the grades front - The universities put up the grades last year as they were teacher assessed grades and a lot of higher than normal passes - this year the grades have been lowered.

DD course went from BBC to AAB the following year.

I wouldn’t worry about her grades.

Some universities also have halls only for students and they don’t need to sort out their own accommodation. It might help as then students don’t feel they have to ‘get in’ with a group to have flat mates the next year.

Also I know this might be painful, but have you asked where it all went wrong? And if she could’ve don’t anything about it sooner? I’m not victim blaming here - we’ve all been places where we don’t fit and recognize where it’s going wrong. As adults we react quicker to these situations. I would maybe look at how they transfer prior to things getting worse: for your daughter, I have one who’s younger and dreading this happening to her.

A level grades of AAB is still fantastic and it’s possible she would still get accepted onto an AAA course with AAB especially as she has autism which should be mentioned. Unis can sometimes be a bit flexible on grades - though 2022 is likely to be a competitive year unfortunately due to lots of people deferring last year.
Your daughter really does need to reach out to the new Uni to discuss her options. In some ways it might be easier to just start from year 1 again rather than try transferring to year 2 as then she would be other new people plus it wouldn’t really matter what grades she gets this year as they would make their decision based mainly on her A level grades.
I would encourage her to phone the Uni tomorrow. If she is very nervous about making the call you could possibly talk to the Uni on her behalf but she would have to talk first and give permission for you to discuss her situation.