Highers as an adult or studying at UHI?

[Randomchat]

Ds is 21 and been working since school. He's now thinking he'd like to go to uni. He has BBC at Higher which is not quite enough to get him into the course he'd like to do.
He's looking through clearing this year but he's just not quite reaching the required grades for the unis he is most interested in.

He seems to have 2 options- sit more Highers or study with the University of the Highlands and Islands. They seem to have lots of Clearing options open.

I realise this is one post about 2 completely separate things.

He's considering doing a couple more higher this year so he can apply for 2027 entry. Does anyone know how to do this? Our local college offers a few options but mainly languages and that's not really his thing.

A google search throws up a couple of online options (Scottish Higher Online for one) but they don't have great Trustpilot reviews and I can't work out whether they are genuine or actually any good.

Also are Highers you sit aged 21 counted equally for UCAS applications? Or is it still mainly your school performance?

Or should he consider UHI? We've been reading about it and looking at some online reviews but can't quite get a feeling for what it would be like. The course he's looking at says fully online. So he could study from his bedroom? Has anyone done this? Are there any regular in person tutorials or anything?

I don't think this would be a fun option for him. He's not going to get the student experience from his bedroom. So I'm leaning towards more highers this year if he can manage that and then a more considered application for 2027. But what do I know? I haven't studied anything for 30 years.

He's tried to make an appointment with the careers advisor through his old school. They've booked him in for mid-September because they're really busy. Which is fair enough, he's made a bit of a last minute decision to apply. But equally not very helpful for applying this year.

So any advice would be much appreciated here. We're floundering a bit.

Thank you

I would make contact with the courses that he wants to do and see if they will take him especially if listed on clearing. They might take someone who is a mature student with less grades than someone who is fresh out of college

Are there any lower level courses in his subject of interest/similar that would help him get to Uni? Eg DS has much less qualifications than your son (school refusal) but if he wanted to go to Uni he could do a HNC/HND first in his subject of interest (it would take longer but is an option).

But agree with getting in touch with course providers as pp has suggested.

He could also get online advice from National Careers Service, used it recently for job hunting advice, v helpful.

He's looked up HNC/HND courses but really he's left it too late for this year for the courses he's interested in. He can't find courses that still have spaces.

He's got BBC at Higher and at clearing the courses he's interested in are round about BBBB or ABB so he's a bit off. He did call his preferred place on Friday but they said they wouldn't accept his reduced qualifications because his work experience is not relevant. But he will call more on Monday. They might have a different response.

If he has to wait till 2027 he's got the idea of doing extra highers this year to give him a few more options. But he's struggling to find out where to do them. I thought there would be some good online options for adults but they're not obvious.

I don't know why he's had this sudden change of heart. We had talked about uni back in February when he had more time and more options but he decided against it.

It's not the end of the world to wait another year and be better organised but I think studying something this year, even if it's just one higher, would make him feel he was moving forward. He's just a bit stuck.

Thanks for the suggestion. He can give them a call

Have a look online for Access courses, they are paid but can do higher and advanced higher equivalent short courses, through many Unis. Worth a look, good luck to him 👍

They all seem to say you need to be out of education for 3 years. So he'll need to wait another year I think to qualify for those. He left school in May 2024. Certainly for Glasgow and Edinburgh it needs to be 3 years. He doesn't meet any of the other criteria for widening access.

Can you give us an idea of what sort of course he is looking at? Eg science, accounting, sports, drama? It may help us to advise a bit. UHI might work better for some courses than others, I know there are a number of courses, eg biosciences, which are very financially precarious at UHI at the moment

Geography. Or a social science. He regrets not sticking with history. Politics maybe. If he could go back in time he'd choose history but he didn't even do higher.

I think he's so vague overall that he could do with taking this year to seriously plan something rather than rushing in.

I'd thought maybe he could do a higher in History and something else this year then his options would be wider next year. But that's not as easy as I thought as a 20 yr old.

Any good?
University of Aberdeen, a few access higher/advanced higher online options (paid)

What does he want to do career wise after Uni? The job market for graduates is bad and getting worse as there’s so many graduates now so I’d encourage him to really think it through.
I’d say go to a skills development Scotland careers advisor. They can advise on progression routes and qualifications. I’d also suggest contacting the Depts at the Unis he’s interested in and asking their advice on best route to get qualifications he needs. They are used to people of all ages with a variety of qualification types applying.

The best route for him may well be a social sciences type HNC at a college as he’ll be able to use that as entry into a variety of courses.

Thanks for the recommendation @JackieGoodman he's going to look into that.

He knows he's probably not going to get into a decent graduate job straight away, if ever. I think he just wants the uni experience. His friends are havinf it now and he feels he's missing out. He works for a big retailer right now and is realistic I think that he might graduate and still end up managing a shop or something. But at least he's had fun for 4 years. That's his thinking.

I'm so glad not to be starting out in life any more. It's hard.

Has he looked into the SWAP Access to Humanities? We often take people who have less than the supposed number of years out of education, it's all down to the interview. The problem is that courses are mostly full by this point, though we run clearing days in August.

Edit, just thinking Access to STEM is also an option if he wants to go on to geography courses, and that has a lot of leeway with years out of education.

UHI definitely isn’t the right fit for him if he is wanting a uni experience, particularly as it’s fully online. If he can get something through clearing this year it would be best, but appreciate that his highers might not be enough. I don’t have any knowledge of how to do additional highers at age 21, I know our local college does higher maths and English but I don’t know about other highers.
I like the look of this course https://www.napier.ac.uk/courses/ba-hons-

social-sciences-undergraduate-fulltime don’t know if they have clearing spaces. BBBC isn’t a million miles from what he has already.

Would be worth keeping in touch with local colleges early to mid August as there might be some movement with spaces once exam results come out. Some Uni applicants will hold on to an HNC place as a back up until they know they've met their Uni conditions.
If nothing available at that stage colleges also sometimes offer short fast track to HNC courses running from Jan-June designed to progress students from level 6 to HNC so he wouldn't necessarily have to wait until next August to start studying if he spotted a January course thay appealed to him.
HNC would probably be the most straightforward route to University and once completed he may also (depending on the university and course) qualify for 2nd year direct entry. Check with Unis first though if he has specific institutions in mind.
It sounds odd that the first career appt he can get is September. Instead of making contact via his previous school adviser he should phone SDS direct and a much faster appointment would be available within the post school/adult provision.

I done HNC social sciences at college I had higher in RMPS and modern studies both As but had a B in the other took a year out of education and went to college. I got offered 3 please at uni for politics and international relations however circumstances changed and I never went. The social sciences course is brilliant. He could see if he could still get in by calling colleges xx

The Careers Advisor from his old school won't be able to help him, so he needs to book an appointment with Skills Development Scotland as pp said.
They will look at the job/career your DC wants and the quals needed for it. Then advise on the H subjects needed for uni. They can also advise on the jobs market for the career.
The SDS website might well have all this info anyway and it will do your DC good to be taking some agency in researching his options.

Many decades ago, I did the Access course at Aberdeen Uni as a mature student. Back then, Aberdeen guaranteed a degree study place (via clearing) if you passed the course with high grades. I would check if this is still the case.

I will also be looking at how much the career your DC wants will be affected by AI in the future.