Destination Education
00:37:05 · Ruth Benny, Barbara Lestak
[00:37:05] S0: And the universities don't penalize, mean, there's no disadvantage in doing a foundation course? [00:37:11] S1: Nope, no, absolutely not. Because if you imagine the university wants the best of the best, right? So if they know that, okay, you had a hiccup here or you're almost there, but you just need a little bit of extra support. We want to have you in our system as a student. So let's give you that additional support that you need to get you going and then we can put you into the main degree. So yeah, absolutely. Doesn't, there's no Makes penalisation for [00:37:36] S0: sense. Do contextual admissions, does that apply to international students or does that only apply to home students? [00:37:44] S1: No, so you can have contextual offers. It does become a little harder and I'm not massively sort of clued up on which universities consider contextual offers as per international students. But I do know for example that there are some cases where they might ask for, if it is a contextual student, they might ask for some kind of government scholarship or support from their home country or proof of that so that the student can come over. That said, we have a foundation and we work with national international students there and from you know everything from asylum seekers to those who have some level of government funding because it is hard for a contextual student to come over and have to pay those large sums of money and without some kind of grant or support. But yes, they absolutely considered.
00:37:44 · Barbara Lestak, Ruth Benny
[00:37:44] S1: No, so you can have contextual offers. It does become a little harder and I'm not massively sort of clued up on which universities consider contextual offers as per international students. But I do know for example that there are some cases where they might ask for, if it is a contextual student, they might ask for some kind of government scholarship or support from their home country or proof of that so that the student can come over. That said, we have a foundation and we work with national international students there and from you know everything from asylum seekers to those who have some level of government funding because it is hard for a contextual student to come over and have to pay those large sums of money and without some kind of grant or support. But yes, they absolutely considered. [00:38:41] S0: Okay. We've skipped around a lot, so we're definitely going to need this timeline. So let's assume that I think it's, we're speaking at the end of April. So I think by the middle of May, all of the offers will have been made. Is that correct? Yep. Is it May 15 or something? Yep. Yes. And then August 15. Yeah. And then the IB results are sometime end of July, and then the A level results are August 15. And it's not until a child, a student actually gets their grades, that they will know whether they can go to the university that they've selected. It seems there's got to be a better way, surely.
00:39:22 · Barbara Lestak
[00:39:22] S1: Yeah, so they have often flirted with the idea of bringing it earlier. So almost during the UCAS process, either condensing it or just bringing it into almost sort of a year earlier than what it is now. The issue with that is, there's a number of issues with that. If you condense it, if you imagine universities get thousands and thousands of applications, if you're going to ask the admissions tutors who also teach and the administrative team to go through this in a much, much shorter time. It's almost impossible, know, they want to be thorough, don't want to make mistakes, to make sure that the places in the office go to the right students and the deserving students. So they have to go through that rigorous process. The second is that of course if you do it a little bit earlier, those students haven't, you know, they might have just started their A level journey. They might not yet be entirely certain where they want to go. So it's almost the onus on the student, the pressure on the student to go, come on, we need to know now. You know, and it'd be almost like asking a year nine student, okay, what do want to do for your A levels? Tell me now, tell me now. It's not, they're not quite there yet. You know, they've only just started their A level subjects. They haven't really kind of navigated massively, which is again where that earlier support comes in. If you can start earlier, fantastic. You'll be more certain of your pathway. But that said, that can change. You know, I've worked with students in year 10 and by year 11, they've gone, actually, no, I had this amazing conversation, or I watched this seminar, I did this, and now I want to go in this direction. It's not very fair on the student. It does make it a little harder and it does make it very exciting for students across the summer to sit their exams and then have to wait. But that's why that, you know, when you're making your university choices, make smart choices. So, you know, use all five, see where you get your offers across your five choices and then narrow down. So you have to make two choices out of the five. So first is your first choice and then your insurance choice or your second choice. And you have to drop the other three.
00:41:34 · Barbara Lestak, Ruth Benny
And that is also, you know, it's fair in the system because you need to allow for all the other students to also make those choices and then universities can say, okay, where are our places, etcetera. So it's interesting because it is something that I know they have toyed with and thought about the idea, but I'm not sure it's gonna happen. Certainly not anytime soon. [00:41:56] S0: As a parent of a child waiting for their results, I wouldn't call it exciting at all. That's not the choice of word that I would pick. [00:42:04] S1: Like school and just, [00:42:08] S0: Logistics, logistically, it's just so stressful, you know, trying to book accommodation for a university that you hope your child will go to, but you genuinely don't know until they receive their results. It's so, so late. Anyway, IB is earlier, which is a good thing. But I know there's a lot of talk about this PQA, post qualification admissions, whether or not they're gonna go for it, you're saying probably not.
00:42:08 · Ruth Benny, Barbara Lestak
[00:42:08] S0: Logistics, logistically, it's just so stressful, you know, trying to book accommodation for a university that you hope your child will go to, but you genuinely don't know until they receive their results. It's so, so late. Anyway, IB is earlier, which is a good thing. But I know there's a lot of talk about this PQA, post qualification admissions, whether or not they're gonna go for it, you're saying probably not. [00:42:36] S1: I'm not sure. They have flirted, it's not the first year that they flirted with us. You know, it's been a few years in the making and we have seen, for example, you know, the admissions tests have been pulled super early now. So they literally, students for Oxbridge, you know, they submit their UCAS application and then for some of them, two days later they have to sit their admissions tests. So it is sort of edging closer. Whereas a few years ago it would be sort of mid November, they start of November. So they had that little bit of time. That's not the case anymore. They are all set in October. So there is a slow speeding up, but I think you might get some pushback from the universities as well as potentially schools. It'd have to be really, really well designed and structured to be able to sort of maximize that.
00:42:36 · Barbara Lestak, Ruth Benny
[00:42:36] S1: I'm not sure. They have flirted, it's not the first year that they flirted with us. You know, it's been a few years in the making and we have seen, for example, you know, the admissions tests have been pulled super early now. So they literally, students for Oxbridge, you know, they submit their UCAS application and then for some of them, two days later they have to sit their admissions tests. So it is sort of edging closer. Whereas a few years ago it would be sort of mid November, they start of November. So they had that little bit of time. That's not the case anymore. They are all set in October. So there is a slow speeding up, but I think you might get some pushback from the universities as well as potentially schools. It'd have to be really, really well designed and structured to be able to sort of maximize that. [00:43:27] S0: Okay. Well, we do know that one thing is changing and that's the personal statement. They're calling it a reform, but I don't think it's that big of a reform, is it really? So just briefly, Barbara, because that's for people who are listening, if they are applying for 2026 entry, they will be the first to do the new style of personal statement. What does it look like?