HELP WITH UNI OPTIONS

[JustMum3]

Hi ladies, I need your advice on this issue. My son failed his first year at uni and his resit. He’s now used his second year to retake modules he failed in his first year. It’s not because he doesn’t Study but that he just took a very hard subject and is doing his best to pass it. Now my worry as a mom is what happens if he fails his retake because he really wants to be in Uni.what would be the options for him, can he reapply st a different Uni using his A’ level results and take a different subject. Will student finance still help him or would he have to pay privately. Has anyone been through this with their child. Would really appreciate your suggestions Ladies.

No idea on this one sorry but does he know the answers? Surely he’s in the best place to find out?

Agree with Everyonetalk - he needs to see his programme leader or equivalent to talk things through and see if there is any extra support and advice available to get him through resits, and to establish a back-up plan. At my uni you would get a resit, then if you failed that you would have to repeat the unit the following year. And if you failed the first attempt then you would get another resit opportunity but that would be last chance saloon - unless there were mitigating circumstances (e.g. health issues, serious issues affecting yourself or family etc.). My understanding re student finance is that there is four years' worth of funding available so if your ds failed again and was withdrawn from their current university then if they wanted to do a full three years' elsewhere there might be issues. Repeating a unit would normally be charged at much less than full tuition but would still eat into the pot available so they would need to self-fund to complete another 3-yr course. But he would of course keep the credit he's gained so far so graduating without honours or taking an intermediate level award might be possible. It really depends what he wants to do afterwards as to what's the best decision here - he needs to talk to someone at his uni!

If he's not academically up to it - and with respect it sounds as if he isn't, he's best off quitting now, rather than racking up another term of debt and losing yet more loan entitlement.

I'm sure he does really want to be at university (hell who wouldn't!) but that doesn't mean it's the best course of action.

Options include going elsewhere - maybe look at Foundation Degrees rather than Honours degrees - with his existing A levels, going to a university with much lower entry requirements, changing subject should also be considered - he'll probably have to pay for a year himself though.

A year out working and re-assessing options could be useful.

Did he actually resit the 1st year course in the 2nd year and pay £9000 course fees for that year?
My DS failed his 1st year at Uni and the resit of one crucial exam. The Uni offered to allow him to take a year out and re-sit the failed exam at the end of a 2nd year - but not actually attend the Uni, just access the course materials on-line and pay the exam fee. During his year off he decided that he was probably finding this module too hard and that if he was struggling with 1st year he didn't want to go on to subsequent years and risk failing again further down the line.

He decided to apply through UCAS to do a competely different course at different Unis and got an unconditional offer to take up the new course in what would have been his original year 3. He used the year out to study an A level linked to the new subject and worked part time to earn some cash.

The student loan system has 1 extra year built in for funding so he has now started a 3 year degree course and will get full funding for his tuition fees.

I think the key thing for your son is whether he has had funding for 1 year or 2 already as this will affect his ability to get full funding for a different degree course.

I would anticipate that Unis would not want failures on their statistics, so it should be in their best interest to assist him to pass. Is his attendance 100% ?. He should be asking the tutors how far off the pass mark he was and what he needs to do to pass. Is there a mentor in a year or two above that can point him in the right direction. Is the course academic or practical or a combination of both ? Is his course in a subject that he enjoys ?