Ds supposed to be starting 3rd year, but…….

[Sewaccidentprone]

Doesn’t have enough credits - failed 2 units so now has 90 credits but needed 120 credits.

Uni says there’s nothing they can do and he’s off the course.

No clue what to do now???

Has he spoken to them? Are there any options to resit the second year? What does he want to do?

Why did he fail? Too hard or no work?
Did he want to go to uni or no other option for him at the time?

Did he/does he have the opportunity to resit? Was he aware of it?

He had interview a week ago and was told he’d probably have to do a supplementary year to do his 2 units, but I don’t think faculty realized then that one of his units was 20 credits and the other unit 10. The max allowed to do supplementary year is 20.

retaking 2nd year wasn’t given as an option. Just told to speak to careers advice.

What went wrong w the units? Couldn't do or didn't do?

He failed 2 units out of 11 (I think). He worked hard, but really struggled with one of them.

it’s a combined engineering degree, so intense, and was his choice.

he wanted to do extra year.

Did he know in the summer he had failed? It seems very late to be looking into this now,

Has he previously needed to restudy? (in which case he might run out of funding).
At my uni he would be given the option of ‘making good’ ie restudying the failed modules this year before progressing to third year next year.
It will depend on what the assessment regulations are at his institution. He should have access to the regs (although they can be a bit difficult to understand). He needs to speak to his personal tutor or course leader who will be able to give him guidance.

end of year 2 kick out is harsh and indicates they really don’t think he is up to it.

you haven’t mentioned how he feels about it and what’s he thinking.

On a practical level, if he’s off the course, can the credits be transferred to somewhere else like the Open University?

Not meaning to be nasty just realistic, but was he on a course that’s too difficult for him or is it, as in the case of my own DC, that he hasn’t put in the work? He needs to recognise the difference to be able to move on in a positive way.

Op

this absolutely will not in any way be a surprise to him. He will have known this was on the cards, and then very likely, for some time now. He has not been open with you, understandably as probably embarrassed

He retook 4 units in Aug, but failed 2 of them.

He has only done 2 years, no retakes. Only 20.

was interviewed by faculty 8 days ago and was given the bad news yesterday.

trying to work out options.

Uni regs say max 20 credits to take in additional year.

wasn’t told this was a possible outcome.

Universities have different rules - some m allow him to retake in these circumstances and others don't.

He should be able to transfer to another university, with less strict continuation criteria, and use his credits on the new course so he doesn't have to start from the beginning. Obviously, this is likely to be a university that is lower in the league tables.

He needs to hurry up and start contacting other universities OP. They are likely to have a registration deadline that is pretty soon.

Good luck!

Presumably a professionally accredited course? If so maybe ask the professional body if the passed units are transferrable to another qualification, apprenticeship or course. If he has struggled to pass maybe it is not the best choice.

See if he can transfer to within that Uni with a less intense but similar course.

Or is there a chance he could extend graduation, and do 20 credits during the 3rd and then stay for a summer course or pop back the following autumn to do the 10 credits? Or switch to a PT format of the course? They have to have something if a student is ill/injured to extend or swap from FT to PT.

Lots of good ideas here. Maybe ds was played the whole thing down. Who knows.

trying to work out possible options for him when chatting with careers advice on Mon.

He urgently needs to talk to the Students Union. They will be very knowledgable about that uni's specific regulations and what his options are. We would allow him to repeat the second year with a reduced credit loss for example, but we allow three attempts.

Failing four modules though is quite a lot. It does suggest something went wrong somewhere.

Yes he will have. This is the final step of a long process that DS would have been acutely aware of.

so first thing is to make clear that you are absolutely in his corner and going to support him as much as possible BUT he just be absolutely transparent with you going forward

So to clarify, he's failed, retook some units and then failed some again? So yes, he has played it down.

I hope the meeting with Careers goes well and that they help him sort out what to do next.

You said too he “struggled” was there any SEN or extenuating circumstances causing this? (illness, victim of a crime, bereavement, injury, homelessness etc)
They have to provide reasonable accommodations.

What were his grades on his other modules? At my Uni, for example, if you fail 1 module but got 2:1 average across the others, they can decide to let you continue anyway. I don’t know how often it happens, but it’s mentioned at the start of every year, even on the accredited courses.

Only if they’re reported within a set time or if there’s a strong reason for them not being reported within the time frame eg being in hospital. They can’t retroactively put things in place for SEN. And it’s not even the Uni that does that, it’s the DSA.

He will have been told. It's really hard to get to this point. I failed stuff, you know if you're struggling.

I think he should be looking for a job, in engineering somewhere. Ideally an apprenticeship.

Either he has undiagnosed issues (I did) or he's trying to do a course beyond his capacity (I did that too, maths wasn't strong enough) or he's been partying (wish I'd done that). Good luck, tho I also think it's his issue to sort...

So he failed four of the eleven, retook them failed two again, and still only had 90 points.

second year is where it counts, first year is always like a transition base knowledge period with little of what’s done counting to the final degree. Second year is when it ramps up. Third year being the most difficult.

if you fail a module twice you need to exit and if you have failed more than 20 credits you need to leave as a general guide but all unis differ.

someone more expert than me will clarify but across the board he’s getting about 25-% It’s a signficant fail. Generally you need about 360 credits for a third class degree, if he is sitting in 90 it would be practically impossible for him to achieve that in his third year, so exit is the right decision, I’m sorry

I agree on can’t be retroactive, but if the department has not been accommodating SEN or other issue that was reported and they knew about, the Uni can take that into account.