1. Higher Education Navigation!
This is a presentation which can be adapted for an assembly or classroom-based workshop and is designed to help pre-16 young people (and potentially also parents/families) understand the HE application process and also understand the range of HE options available within the UK. This workshop does not look at Higher Level Apprenticeships but the point can be made that the degree part of these qualifications would be studied at one of the different types of universities/colleges shown later on in the presentation.

3. How to Apply
All full-time undergraduate courses are applied to via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)
Online application
Maximum 5 choices
Deadlines:
15th October – Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Oxford or Cambridge
15th January – All other courses and universities
BE AWARE – some 6th forms or colleges may have an earlier internal deadline
30th June – final deadline
15/01 deadline to be considered equally to others applying before this deadline **some art and design courses have a 24/03 deadline**
Internal deadlines are so that tutors have enough time to write a good reference for you (and your classmates)
Any applications submitted after 30/06 are automatically entered into Clearing
Applications submitted between 15/01 and 30/06 do not have to be considered, some courses fill early.

4. UCAS tariff points A-Level Grade Tariff Points A* 56 A 48 B 40 C 32 D24 E 16
BTEC L3 Extended Diploma Grade
Tariff Points
D*D*D*
168
D*D*D
160
D*DD
152
DDD
144
DDM
128
DMM
112
MMM 96
MMP 80
MPP 64
PPP 48
A student doing 3 A-Levels who gets AAB would have 136 UCAS points, or a student with CCC would have 96 points, the same as MMM at BTEC.
Important to note that some Higher Education Institutions may ask for specific grades in place of points, and for certain HE courses they might need particular A-Levels or BTECs to have been taken after Year 11. For example, for Medicine a student would have to have taken Biology and Chemistry at A-Level, with some universities asking specifically for the third A-Level to be in Maths or Physics. These would also likely need to be high grades – A or A*. Even if you got D*D*D* in BTEC Applied Science, this wouldn’t meet the necessary criteria for this course.

5. Choosing the right course
How many Institutions can you study Higher Education at?
How many courses are available?
Over 395 in the UK
37,000 different courses and combinations of courses
Do your research
Order prospectuses
Go to Open Days
Ask questions
The more work you put into the process, the more likely you are to make the right decision.
Good way to encourage participation in a workshop or an assembly, asking for guesses about the amount of HEIs in the UK as well as the range of available courses.
Emphasis that with 37,000 different courses, there will be courses available that they might not have ever heard of or considered would be something that can be studied at a higher level. Some weird and wonderful examples are shown later on.

6. 1. 6. 2. 7. 3. 8. 4.
If you have the magnetic map, this can be used here. I have simplified it down to 10 but you could use all of the magnetic logos supplied if time allows.
Alternatively, in a workshop, you could print out A3/A4 versions of the map above and split the young people into groups, asking them to correctly locate the ten institutions shown.
In an assembly, you could ask for a volunteer to give their guess using a laser pointer. 9. 5.
10.

7. Higher Education Institutions
Every one of the almost 400 universities and colleges where you could study for a HE qualification will be different.
What would you be more interested in?
The following slides show some broad categories that many of these HEIs fall into. Many younger students might not yet have any ideas about which kind of place they might be most interested in so this is just to give them an idea about how universities and colleges differ from each other.

8. Ancient Universities University of Cambridge (founded 1209)
Also University of Oxford (1096), St Andrews University in Scotland (1413). Really old universities! 4 others in Scotland and Ireland (Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dublin).

9. Modern universities
Anglia Ruskin University – also in Cambridge!

10. Colleges
Liverpool – Hugh Baird College, University Centre

11. “Redbrick” universities
University of Liverpool – same city as Hugh Baird but very different student experiences.

12. University of Warwick
Campus university

13. City centre campus university
Manchester Metropolitan University

14. X X X Uni of Staffordshire Reaseheath College (Uni of Chester)
STOP MOTION ANIMATION AND PUPPET-MAKING
Uni of Staffordshire
Reaseheath College (Uni of Chester)
DAIRY FARM MANAGEMENT
Uni of Bedfordshire
FOOTBALL STUDIES
FACEBOOK MANAGEMENT X
Bradford College University Centre X
HORROR LITERATURE
MEDIA MAKE-UP AND SPECIAL EFFECTS
STREET ARTS
Uni of Winchester
VIKING STUDIES
Uni of Nottingham
Course it is/course it isn’t.
Some of these are real degrees offered at universities and colleges in the UK but some are not! The animation reveals if they are real (and where they can be studied) or if they are not.
Simple show of hands – is it a real course?
YACHT OPERATIONS
Uni of Plymouth
PERFUMOLOGY X

15. Written communication Expressing opinions Project management
Presentation skills
Academic writing
Group work
Written communication
Expressing opinions
Project management
Data analysis
Industry experience
Critical thinking
Research skills
Following briefs
BA (Hons) Media,
Leeds Trinity University, 2012
Sam works as a Student Engagement and Outreach Officer at Bradford College and organises events and delivers workshops and presentations to young people to encourage them to think about going to College and University. He studied A-Levels at Barnsley College, but what did Sam study for his degree?
These are the transferable skills which Sam developed through his degree. Can anyone successfully guess what Sam studied?
Ask for suggestions, and when revealed, talk about how many degrees offer a wide range of these “soft” skills which are not specific to a particular degree or line of work. No matter what you study at university or college you will develop skills like this.
If you eventually choose to study Accountancy, there’s a good chance you’ll be looking for a job as an Accountant, or if you study Medicine you’re planning to become a Doctor. If you choose to study a subject like Media or History, and someone asks what you plan to do for a job afterwards, tell them you could do lots of different things!

16. Higher Education Navigation!
Come and collect an iPad, and get your course and your character
Go to and go to “Search for courses”
Look for the course you’ve been given and see which universities or colleges might be appropriate for your character – use the “Map View” or look on those institution’s websites for more information about them.
Can you suggest up to 5 places your character might be interested in applying to?
This activity can be omitted if being delivered as an assembly. There is an accompanying document on Glasscubes called HE Destination Activity with a selection of HE courses and three different character profiles, which should be printed off and cut/guillotined to be used for this activity.
If your institution does not have iPads/tablets this obviously can be adapted for laptops or computers if using an IT suite.

17. For further information:
UCAS –
Student Finance England - finance

18. Thank you!