[mr_colt]

Should be but, just confirm with the uni they will take GCSE's in lieu of the L2 credits requirement. 5 mins writing and sending an email to the course team can save a whole lot of headache later on. The pharmacy staff at the uni's I contacted were always polite and promptly responded with the info I needed.

Foward planning on your part to them shows you are making an effort to get into Pharmacy; they will be more than willing to try to help you through the steps to gain entry to their university.

I would like to issue an update on my previous post: Despite what is printed on their website and prospectus, Aston's pharmacy school won't touch Access students with a barge pole. The whole system reaks of Discrimination against Students who cannot do "traditional" entry qualifications due to their age etc. Its sneaky but they know they can get away with it.

It is impossible in Staffordshire (and other places too) to take A-Levels in science unless you are willing to travel very long distances to outside the county. This is because a significant number of the tech colleges nationwide have stopped offering the a-levels, they give the excuse that they can be attained from local sixth form schools where the environment is "better" for that sort of "traditional course."

What they neglect to tell you is that no sixth form will take a Student over 18. As they can claim that since the 1990's the government has made it law/regulation to hold "non-traditional" routes such as Access or BTEC's up to the same standard as A-Levels. But the current situation makes it a load of crock.

Currently, most tech (polytechnical) colleges (the only real option for "mature" students) have abolished their BTEC level 3 pure science courses in favour of fads like forensic science. Most uni's will not view the resulting qualifications as entirely apporiate for Pharmacy as the Students have learnt knowledge specifically tied to forensics. The underpinning science taught isn't as thorough as A-level chemistry for example.

Access depth of knowledge for level 3 Biology and Chemistry (they dropped physics due to lack of demand here) is the same as A-level. Unfortunatly a completed Access cert runs just short of being equivalent to 3 A-levels, allowing some universities to actively discriminate against those who cannot enter through the "Traditional" route.

One cannot use the excuse the Access students are not sufficently qualified to undertake the m.pharm, De Montfort uses its own entry exams to test the capability and knowledge of Access and other "non-traditional" qualification holders.The fact that it is a fight and a half to get into HE if you are over 18 seems to give rise to a core of very dedicated students who on average do better at uni than their younger counterparts.

Admitedly no-one gets into pharmacy without bucket-loads of commitmement, but there is no room for doubt or complacency is you are a mature student.

I would love to hear from anyone on the EPB or BPSA on this very real issue of discrimination. I feel it is totally unfair and changes need to be made.

mr_colt.