Can anyone help me think this through re Uni please?

[54isanopendoor]

Hi. Ds is 18. Currently finishing an HNC.
Didn't apply to Uni for this autumn as 'not ready, & planned to start an HND first. But now he is not so sure. He's had a difficult year. His Tutor was very disorganised, the course was new, so he's had to teach himself really & it's damaged his confidence.
His options are:
Stay at the local College for another year & hope the different course & Tutor are better. He'd have to decide this autumn whether to apply for Uni 24 or stay for 2nd year HNC (in which case he could go into Yr 3 of his degree)
OR, suddenly apply under the Extra rules (but he's not at all sure which Uni / course to apply for). OR he could wait for results & apply under clearing (but does he have to already be in the system to do this?) & choose from what's left.

He doesn't have much confidence. He is about to do a College trip abroad which may give him a huge lift & he could go to Uni on the back of that, but he has ASD & SEN & may just sink like a stone if he rushes at it. OR he could swim?

He doesn't know what he wants & I am unsure how best to advise him.

Can you share what subject and what college is your DC currently at? Which Uni would they ideally like to go to?

Before he thinks about applying to any Uni, he needs to know which subject he intends on studying. He then needs to look at the course content at several universities in order to choose the most relevant match to his interests, intended career and qualifications. I would suggest he request an appointment to discuss all this asap, with a Careers Adviser at his college. If not satisfied with that, he can contact his local Skills Development Scotland office for a careers appointment to look at his options and next steps. As a professional courtesy, they would recommend he see his college adviser first, if possible.
https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/

You say that the HNC course tutor was disorganised and so DS had to teach himself, but much of university work involves self-directed study plus lectures and tutorials, especially if he gets in on the 2+2 scheme and starts in 3yr.

I don't know exactly what you mean by disorganised. Eg. when I did my first degree, we were given the entire term's assignments at the start and it was up to the student to do research and plan timescales etc so as to hand in each assignment when due. For my next degree, I thought the lecturers were disorganised because they didn't hand out the entire term's work at the start!

Years ago, I got into uni via Clearing (after making a last minute decision to study for a degree after completing an Access Course), so I wasn't already in the system then.

At university you basically do teach yourself, they provide lectures, some classes and some tutorials plus labs though this is very subject dependent. Even turning up seems optional, dd mostly "attends" from her bedroom as she hates her university accommodation.

My advice is not to rush, you can study at any age, make sure he's ready

@ForbiddenColour He's at a local FE college studying Cyber. He doesn't want to continue with Cyber but to study a different area of computing. Either a general computing degree or programming.

@highlandcoos good advice thank you.
He is not struggling with the concept of self study at all. Rather the course is newly run this year & the Tutor is still 'finding bits the SQA need done' 4 weeks before the end. It's been an absolute car crash. 50% of the students have left, including some mature students with experience of studying at this level or higher. eg yesterday he was expecting an exam. this will now be run in 2 weeks when he is on a mandatory College trip (organised by them months ago) no provision for how it will be rearranged before course end. work handed in before Christmas not marked. Plus the 'hand in button' being absent from most pieces, the Tutor off sick, whole days lectures being 'over' in 20 mins. Constant stress.
He can try again next year (diff course, diff Tutor) & hope it's less miserable.

The Careers Advisor post at his College has been vacant since last summer so we'd need to go direct to Skills Development Scotland.

@gogohmm yes, my gut instinct is not to rush. His ASD & Anxiety mean he will never 'feel ready' but I'd hope in a year he'd feel less rushed?

On a general note, the University of Dundee has a very good reputation for computer related degrees (23 courses). I would even speak directly to them about your son's needs and the kind of support that the uni provides.

If he's not interested in Cyber then perhaps another year in college at the HNC level that is less specialised might be the right choice with focus on uni next year. But agree with highlandcoos might be worth calling unis directly

maybe he'd be better getting a job.
help his independence and a chance to find out what he might like to do re further study.
there might be chances to study while working, or do in job training esp re computing.

What about an apprenticeship?
Some universities recruit staff via IT apprenticeships. Apprentices learn on the job, earn a salary (small, but there's no debt, unlike going to uni) and usually have support for, and access to, further training & development. I helped recruit several. It was meant to be a 2-year programme, but one of them left his college course at Christmas to join us, then left us after a year to take up a job with half the commute and twice the salary :-)

I second this based on the good experience of someone on their Computing Science BSc Honours during covid. It is a small department and the academics make themselves available to the students.

Hi OP, I'd recommend going into 1st year with the HNC over 3rd with the HND. I went into1st year after doing an HNC and some of my friends stayed till the 3rd but hadn't really 'got the hang of uni' and also missed a large chunk of the social aspect. SAAS should fund the 4 years + HNC.