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Hi all,
Just wanted to make this post as I wanted to shame my findings at the utter mess the level 3 (a-level equivalent) system is in for those who want to go onto high-points degrees like Pharmacy: It concerns Students like myself who unfortunately missed the traditional 16-18 a-level years and what obstacles are put in our way to get the UCAS points we need for Pharmacy. The main option open to 19+ prospective degree students without existing a-levels is to take an "Access" course which at level 3 is supposed to function as an a-level alternative to get onto a HE degree:
The trouble with Access is that the number of credits attained cannot be converted to UCAS points. The Access course is also worth the equivalent of about two A-levels as opposed to 3. The number of units required to complete the certificate mean you get a rather generalized science education thats not quite as in depth as a single A-level in Chemistry for example.
Thats not to say Access graduates cannot become good Pharmacy students; merely additional assessment and information is needed when deciding as to whether to offer a place. The Universities are divided as to how to treat Access with regards to the high ucas-points entry degrees such as Pharmacy:
As I wrote in a previous post: Pharmacy schools such as Wolves and Aston simply give a flat no to Access quals even if one were to take an additional A-level in Chemistry alongside to increase the subject knowledge depth. They quite simply don't want to know. Whereas Keele would accept a full access on it's own providing a good number of level 3 credits were scored and the applicant passed an entry examination.
Access courses, while useful to the 19+ students who for whatever reason didn't take A-levels conventionally at 16: Are still too subject-generalized by nature for most Pharmacy, veterinary, dentistry and medical schools to want to look at. The providers don't do themselves any favors by providing student guidance which is unable to help with applying for anything except the generic 120-180 points B/Sc or BA etc.
My course leaders couldn't grasp that there was a undergraduate degree needing an average of 360 points to gain entry to. Or that there is no separate B.Pharm component to the Pharmacy degree. After several attempts to explain the concept; they looked at a prospectus and said why not do B/Sc Pharmacology and then do a masters year? I tried to explain that Pharmacology is a different but linked subject to pure Pharmacy and the Universities had told me it was near impossible to convert.
I then got a lecture on how "I MUST be wrong." because Access "IS AS GOOD as having A-levels." They then said something on the lines of: that I MUST be mixed up as "All pharmacists do is run a shop and read prescriptions and give out the right pills."
They then said that pharmacists probably were people "not good enough to become doctors."
From that point on I didn't bother getting further advice off them to help with the application as it was clear they were too narrow-minded to help anyone with "unusual" choices. Unfortunately this problem with the Access course and it's student support seems rather endemic across the midlands network at least. Meaning students like myself would likely end up doing a foundation degree to make the points up and sort the mess; and it's not easy to locate a suitable pure Chemistry foundation degree either.
Prior to 2006 "mature" students like myself could simply avoid this problem by taking normal Biology, Chemistry and another suitable accompanying A-level at the local "polytechnic" college where classes would be open to students over 19. Unfortunately the recent trend is to port traditional A-levels over to sixth-form colleges to make room for the "new and trendy" vocational subject mixed courses at the tech colleges like forensic science and "Science and psychology." etc. The problem is these courses don't make for good choices to get into medical science subjects Pharmacy. They just don't contain enough pure-chemistry.
Almost all sixth-form colleges won't allow Students over 18 in their admissions policy due to recent funding changes. Not to mention the fact most mature students would not be comfortable in a semi-school like environment with a majority of fellow students being fresh post-16.
So it looks like the only option for me to get into Pharmacy is to get the Access certificate and then spend another two years doing HND "sciences" at the University of Derby. This is the only centre to offer a HND in the "sciences" throughout east and west Midlands and Wales. A HND in pure Chemistry is no longer available in these regions.
All this to get into Pharmacy as the A-level route is no longer open to me... Perhaps if Access wasn't so sub-standard it wouldnt be an issue of wasting two years going all the way to Buxton from Shrewsbury just to get the points I need.
I would welcome peoples comments on this; presumably I'm not the only one who is or has been in this situation.
Thanks,
mr_colt.
Just wanted to make this post as I wanted to shame my findings at the utter mess the level 3 (a-level equivalent) system is in for those who want to go onto high-points degrees like Pharmacy: It concerns Students like myself who unfortunately missed the traditional 16-18 a-level years and what obstacles are put in our way to get the UCAS points we need for Pharmacy. The main option open to 19+ prospective degree students without existing a-levels is to take an "Access" course which at level 3 is supposed to function as an a-level alternative to get onto a HE degree:
The trouble with Access is that the number of credits attained cannot be converted to UCAS points. The Access course is also worth the equivalent of about two A-levels as opposed to 3. The number of units required to complete the certificate mean you get a rather generalized science education thats not quite as in depth as a single A-level in Chemistry for example.
Thats not to say Access graduates cannot become good Pharmacy students; merely additional assessment and information is needed when deciding as to whether to offer a place. The Universities are divided as to how to treat Access with regards to the high ucas-points entry degrees such as Pharmacy:
As I wrote in a previous post: Pharmacy schools such as Wolves and Aston simply give a flat no to Access quals even if one were to take an additional A-level in Chemistry alongside to increase the subject knowledge depth. They quite simply don't want to know. Whereas Keele would accept a full access on it's own providing a good number of level 3 credits were scored and the applicant passed an entry examination.
Access courses, while useful to the 19+ students who for whatever reason didn't take A-levels conventionally at 16: Are still too subject-generalized by nature for most Pharmacy, veterinary, dentistry and medical schools to want to look at. The providers don't do themselves any favors by providing student guidance which is unable to help with applying for anything except the generic 120-180 points B/Sc or BA etc.
My course leaders couldn't grasp that there was a undergraduate degree needing an average of 360 points to gain entry to. Or that there is no separate B.Pharm component to the Pharmacy degree. After several attempts to explain the concept; they looked at a prospectus and said why not do B/Sc Pharmacology and then do a masters year? I tried to explain that Pharmacology is a different but linked subject to pure Pharmacy and the Universities had told me it was near impossible to convert.
I then got a lecture on how "I MUST be wrong." because Access "IS AS GOOD as having A-levels." They then said something on the lines of: that I MUST be mixed up as "All pharmacists do is run a shop and read prescriptions and give out the right pills."
They then said that pharmacists probably were people "not good enough to become doctors." From that point on I didn't bother getting further advice off them to help with the application as it was clear they were too narrow-minded to help anyone with "unusual" choices. Unfortunately this problem with the Access course and it's student support seems rather endemic across the midlands network at least. Meaning students like myself would likely end up doing a foundation degree to make the points up and sort the mess; and it's not easy to locate a suitable pure Chemistry foundation degree either.
Prior to 2006 "mature" students like myself could simply avoid this problem by taking normal Biology, Chemistry and another suitable accompanying A-level at the local "polytechnic" college where classes would be open to students over 19. Unfortunately the recent trend is to port traditional A-levels over to sixth-form colleges to make room for the "new and trendy" vocational subject mixed courses at the tech colleges like forensic science and "Science and psychology." etc. The problem is these courses don't make for good choices to get into medical science subjects Pharmacy. They just don't contain enough pure-chemistry.
Almost all sixth-form colleges won't allow Students over 18 in their admissions policy due to recent funding changes. Not to mention the fact most mature students would not be comfortable in a semi-school like environment with a majority of fellow students being fresh post-16.
So it looks like the only option for me to get into Pharmacy is to get the Access certificate and then spend another two years doing HND "sciences" at the University of Derby. This is the only centre to offer a HND in the "sciences" throughout east and west Midlands and Wales. A HND in pure Chemistry is no longer available in these regions.
All this to get into Pharmacy as the A-level route is no longer open to me... Perhaps if Access wasn't so sub-standard it wouldnt be an issue of wasting two years going all the way to Buxton from Shrewsbury just to get the points I need.
I would welcome peoples comments on this; presumably I'm not the only one who is or has been in this situation.
Thanks,
mr_colt.
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