Last month, our director Jane took part in a workshop with some students  at the City Law Firm, Simmons and Simmons. Each student who took part is currently studying at one of the several state-funded sixth form colleges based in Tower Hamlets and all of them are keen on becoming Lawyers one day. 

The afternoon was led by Shankara Angadi from Twist, a consultancy with the aim of improving career and educational opportunities for as many students as possible. The purpose of the workshop was to explore concepts, ideas and arguments beyond the sixth form syllabus with a view to this being useful in future Law interviews - both academic and professional.

Here she explains what she learnt:

“It was excellent, as it always is, to have time to work directly with enthusiastic, interesting and interested students. The table I worked with were opinionated (in a good way), outspoken and seemed keen to be successful and express their intellect in discussion. Our discussion quickly focused on the debate concerning the niqab in France. Many of the students had a personal connection with Islam and definite views on what they felt was right or wrong (most agreeing that the French government had got it all wrong  - see the news story here.

We started off exploring the topic with passionate and fiery opinions and then we tried to add reasoning and structure to the debate so that we could move further towards having an academic discussion. After all, as a lawyer you need to be able both sides of an argument and reason your way through opposing arguments to the conclusion that best suits you or your client!

The debate started to get interesting when we started thinking about how we could defend France’s position and why. Some excellent points were brought up, such as the fact that the French state holds dear the principle of ‘laicite’. As the students understood this, it means that church and state should be separate. An individual can have the religion he/she wants as long as you do not mention it in the public space. On top of this, a person cannot proselytise their faith in France. This point was used to justify the idea of France thinking a visual symbol of Islam could be argued as infringing the rights of the state. It was excellent that the students put this point forward as an academic concept despite disagreeing with this wholeheartedly. Further, we touched on gender equality, motivations for dressing modestly and freedom of choice in terms of choosing your own clothing in order to understand the impetus behind the decisions of the French government.

When all the groups came back together what became clear is that everyone seemed to enjoy the debates on their table,  that many different concepts had been touched on and that, with regard to many topics, there was no right or wrong answer. The interesting discussions seemed to come out of understanding that having opinions is absolutely essential in a debate but that thinking about opposing sides of the argument and reasoning around the question in order to come to a conclusion, or test your conclusion is sensible. We discussed the fact that using evidence can also prove to be very convincing in a discussion.”

A new list published by the BBC giving details of the fees UK universities have proposed or confirmed for 2012 entry shows that almost 3/4 universities will be charging the full £9000 in tuition fees.

All fees are subject to approval by the Office for Fair Access (Offa), but almost all of the 40 universities that have confirmed their fees for 2012 entry have declared that they intend to charge over £7500.

You can find out how much the universities you are looking to apply to will be charging below and further information can be found in their accompanying statements.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12880840

And don't forget to check out our earlier blog to see how you can reduce your debt, or even get it all paid off! 

http://www.brightnetwork.co.uk/external/oa/2011/03/25/tuition-fees-at-oxford-and-cambridge

If you’re going to be applying to university this year, then the increase in tuition fees is likely to be a subject never too far from your mind.  Following much violent protest, a few inter-party fallings out and some rather hazardous political U-turns, the government has decided to raise the cap on University tuition fees and charge undergraduates up to £9000 per year for their studies.

Even if you have your ear carefully pressed to the ground, the rapid changes and constant to-ing and fro-ing may have left you a little confused.  Never fear! Read on to find out everything you need to know about the tuition fee rises, how they will affect you and what you can do to make things a little bit easier once you graduate.

So what kind of figures are we talking?

From 2012 onwards, universities will be allowed to charge students up to £9000.  Originally this number was only allowed to be charged in ‘exceptional circumstances’, such as if it was an intensive 2 year degree, but universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Exeter and Durham have all applied to charge the full fee rate, arguing that their degrees are worth this sum of money.  More universities are set to join them.   New regulations by the Office of Fair Access have demanded that a proportion of fees charged over £6000 be dedicated to widening access and giving scholarships and bursaries to poorer students.  Cambridge, for example, is currently planning to introduce a means-tested waiver for the top £3000 of the fee.   Under the current forecasts, however, a graduate who spent 3 years at university paying £9000 per year, could come out with a debt of up to £38,000 once maintenance loans are accounted for.   On the brighter side, it is estimated that the poorest students will pay less in future than they do now.

Eek. Well then how do you pay it back?

Current plans are for graduates to have to pay a percentage of their salary above a certain threshold.  This has been increased from £15,000 p.a to £21,000 and graduates will be required to pay 9% of their salary above this for thirty years.  After 30 years, if the debt hasn’t been paid, it is written off (Just as their kids start going to university! Oh the irony...!).  The amount graduates have to be earning before they start paying will be adjusted according to inflation every year, so as £21,000 buys less, the threshold for paying back the loan will increase.  All in all, this means that if you earn say, £25,000 per annum, you will have to pay an extra £187.69 per month to pay off your debt.

Experts have already predicted that only 50% graduates will be able to pay off their loan within 30 years: at the moment, you would need to be earning a salary averaging £48,850 over 30 years in order to pay back your loan in 26 years – and that’s only if you’re being charged £7500 per year.  There are also likely to be penalties for people trying to pay off their debt faster and it is even estimated that 10% graduates will actually pay off more than they borrowed.

So why is this all happening now?

You’re probably tired of hearing this by now, but it’s the recession.  Years of rising investment under the Labour government, which saw many more students going to university, have now given way to necessary spending cuts.   It costs approximately £7000 per year to teach an undergraduate degree (and the tutorial-style system of teaching at Oxford and Cambridge as well as Medicine and Science subjects are even more expensive).  Currently 29% of the universities’ funding comes from fees, a further 35% from the government and the rest from donations and endowments.   The government have had to cut the amount of money they give to universities and the students need to make up the short-fall.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

There are certain things that may make you feel a bit happier if you are worried about how much you will have to pay.  Some graduate employers are promising to be very generous:  Pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKlein are offering to pay 100% of the tuition fees for its graduates who started their degrees after 2012.  Accountancy firm KPMG are going to be funding 75 students through university and employing them afterwards.  Many other large graduate recruiters are set to follow suit as their generous schemes will guarantee them the best graduates.  This is definitely something worth keeping an eye on before you begin university and whilst you are there.

If you’re worried about how much you will have to pay, it’s worth getting all the information you can.  Speak to your school’s careers department and the universities you are thinking of applying to to find out whether you are eligible for any bursaries or scholarships. If you’re thinking of applying to Oxford or Cambridge, give us a call and we’ll try to give you any information we have from our own experiences. 

Having spent some of my most formative years at an Oxford College, and now working in an environment in which I speak to applicants and graduates on a daily basis, it quickly becomes evident that there is no typical background for an Oxbridge undergraduate. I know some people who can trace Oxbridge back in their families the way most people can trace crooked noses, small feet or a bizarre enjoyment of wet and rainy camping trips; others have no history of further education in their families, or come from distant countries where Oxbridge has no cultural significance whatsoever.   I know that some people knew from the age of 6 what they wanted to study, where and why, whilst others had a brainwave (no doubt fairly late in the day on 14^th October) and realised that they quite liked the sound of the Arch & Anth course at Cambridge.  My decision to apply to Oxbridge is probably fairly typical, and may well ring true with you too.

My parents are both Bristol graduates, so unless I had been a complete dunce, there was always a tacit understanding that I would go on to university after my A levels.  I had done well at school and had an impressive clutch of A*s at GCSE and some not entirely hopeless predicted A level grades.  I also really enjoyed my subject and was keen to continue it at university. Having said this, I don’t think anyone, even in a particularly generous mood, would have said that I was any kind of child genius.   There was no eccentric but brilliant teacher who championed my cause, nor a kindly older cousin to impart his or her wisdom.  I was just an ordinary applicant and in the end the attitude was really ‘why not?’   

If you’re currently deliberating over whether to apply to Oxford or Cambridge this year or wondering how you can kick start your application, there are a few questions that you can ask yourself.   Every application is different; there are no hard and fast rules as to who will succeed and who will not, so don’t feel that you shouldn’t be thinking of Oxbridge if you answer ‘no’ to any of these questions.

1)      Do I have the right grades?

• The minimum offer for applicants is AAA at A level (or 38 points in the IB or D2, D2, D3 if you are taking Pre-Us).  Science subjects at Oxford and all subjects at Cambridge have the minimum requirement of A*AA or A*A*A, so you need to be confident that your teachers will be predicting you these grades at the beginning of the year you’re applying and that ultimately you can achieve these marks.
• Most successful applicants have a good number of A*s at GCSE.   Some colleges state that they are unlikely to accept candidates with fewer than seven A*s at GCSE, but we have seen cases where people with three or four A*s or fewer are successful at other colleges within the university.

2)      Do I love my subject?

• It is essential that you really love the course that you are going to apply for as you will be studying it fairly intensely for at least 3 years with people who live and breathe the subject.
• Whilst you are applying you’ll need to be doing lots of extra reading around your subject and keeping up with any developments going on.  You should find this a really enjoyable exercise, rather than a chore, as it is what you will be doing when you get to university.
• If you haven’t yet found your ideal course, it is worth visiting the Oxford and Cambridge websites and finding our which subjects they offer.  You may find that you are a keen Linguistics student or a Materials Scientist, even though these aren’t subjects you’ve studied at school. Doing the research to find your perfect course is essential!

3)      Will I enjoy my university experience if I go to Oxford or Cambridge?

• University life at Oxford and Cambridge is very different to that at most universities.   There is quite a heavy workload and the learning experience can be quite intense, as much of the work is done orally in small groups (tutorials at Oxford, supervisions at Cambridge).   If you are the kind of person who enjoys debating topics, playing with ideas aloud and being quite forceful with your opinion, you are likely enjoy it.   If this sounds like hell, you should do your own research and try to speak to some graduates before you decide to apply so you have a good idea of what your tutorials or supervisions will be like.

It’s always worth speaking to someone with a bit of experience in these matters.  The Oxford and Cambridge admissions offices are really helpful and can always direct you to the right person to answer your question.  Alternatively, you could give one of us a call.  We’re all Oxbridge graduates and we were in your position not very many years ago.

Although the Oxbridge deadline for Personal Statements is 15^th October 2011, it is a really positive step to make your decision to apply early on in the year.  It allows you so much more time to read around your subject, which will be hugely beneficial at interview, understand why you want to study the course you are applying for and do the research to ensure you pick the best college for you.   Our research has shown that it is those applicants who are most proactive about their application, who do the legwork to find out all they can and who take advantage of the opportunities that are offered who are most successful come December.

If you’re not deciding whether or not to apply this year, you may well be deciding whether or not to reapply.   I’ll be blogging some more information about this next week and the things you should consider in making this decision, so watch this space.  If you would like to speak to one of us about this, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

If you ever have any questions about your application or what it’s like at Oxford or Cambridge, give us a call on 0207 499 2394.  Alternatively you can tweet your question to us by beginning the tweet @applytoOxbridge and we’ll answer as soon as we can.  

We look forward to hearing from you.

The A level enigma

It’s that time of year again:   The days are hot and more or less sunny; the jingle of an ice cream van rises on the wind and a familiar question sweeps the broadsheets of our fair land.  Are A levels getting easier?

When the results come in on Thursday morning certain cynics will roll their eyes at yet another record breaking year.  Even as an impartial outside observer, it can be difficult not to see some truth in the accusations.   How can each successive year out-do the previous one if it isn’t something to do with the exam?   Surely the chemicals in the water can’t be that effective. 

So what is going on?

The UK’s three major exam boards, AQA, Edexcel and OCR, which set the A level papers are in turn moderated by Ofqual, the government’s Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation.   Ofqual states that the levels of questions is roughly even between all three boards and roughly equivalent to the exams of previous years.   Chief Executive Isabel Nisbet says “Whatever grades candidates achieve, they can be confident that they have not been unfairly disadvantaged, or advantaged, because they took their exam with one board and not another.”   It seems that the A levels themselves aren’t getting any easier.  So where does the negative press come from?

Andrew Gilligan’s article in the Telegraph this weekend delved deeper.   Edexcel, now owned by the giant publisher Pearson, runs seminars in some subjects for teachers and students designed to show how to ‘structure’ the ‘perfect’ answer and ‘meet the requirements [of] the generic mark scheme’ - all for a not so small fee.  The problem, it seems, is not that the exams are getting easier, but that schools and pupils are simply being given the answers; that once elusive A grade is fast becoming the norm.  A win-win situation for schools and exam boards perhaps, but those who are really losing out are the brightest students, who find it harder and harder to stand out academically and win their place at the best Universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge.

If this is the case, could there be an easy remedy?   The government could send their meanest looking suits over to Edexcel HQ and tell them to up their game – or else! They could then pop round to give Ofqual a clip round the ear for missing the problem and be home in time for tea.  But although it is frustrating for students, who work hard for two years only for it to be implied that they were spoon fed the answers, it isn’t as simple as that.   Instead each successive Schools’ Minister imposes a new set of changes on the A level system.  First they introduced AS levels, then modules and coursework, all of which have been criticized for lowering the standard. A more recent change is the A* grade at A level, an introduction that brings me out in a cold sweat when I think about my own results.  The A* was introduced to distinguish the top students from the hordes who get straight As, but even here there is a disagreement between the top institutions:  Cambridge requires it, whilst Oxford ignores it.   Now Michael Gove, the current Minister for Schools is planning another shake up: getting rid of AS levels all together.  These changes along with the periodic threat of IB invasion is enough to make even the best teacher’s head spin and again it seems it’s the brightest students who are losing out. Whilst the government may have big plans for the future, A level students are, for the moment at least, stuck with the current system and all its problems.  

So what can you do?  If you’re thinking about applying to Oxbridge, your will already be armed with an impressive academic record.  But how can you ensure that your clutch of As and A*s stand out from the rest and you make the strongest application you can? 

Do your research on the course you are applying for to make sure it is really what you want to do, read around your subject to find out what really interests you and make sure your personal statement is as good as it can be by checking out our useful guide to writing your personal statement.  Admissions tests have become an important part of the Oxbridge admissions process in recent years so make sure you know what will be required of you by looking at our handy test guides.   Above all, be confident in yourself that you can succeed.

Best of luck for your A level and AS level results on Thursday!   And if any one gives you any stick, just pat them kindly on the arm and tell them that this year’s record breaking A levels are just further proof of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution!