A multicultural and welcoming environment
The United Kingdom is undoubtedly one of the most popular destinations for students wishing to study abroad. Each year, about 500,000 international students choose to study at one of the over 300 universities and colleges across the Channel, with a wide choice of over 35,000 courses offered.
Living and studying in the UK has many advantages. The first is certainly the possibility of studying in English. In addition, British universities enjoy an excellent international reputation, awarding qualifications that are recognised worldwide. Let’s not forget that the United Kingdom is home to some of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as Oxford and Cambridge (but also Durham, St Andrews, University of Edinburgh…).
But the advantages of studying overseas are not just academic! For example, it is good to remember that the UK’s popularity as a destination for students from all corners of the world means that the British academic environment is extremely multicultural, diverse and welcoming.
The sore point? In addition to English cuisine (but for this there is our blog!), Certainly the biggest obstacle for those wishing to undertake a course of study in the UK are the costs, which are not always accessible, especially in the very popular London and surrounding areas.
Structure of the university system, academic qualifications and ECTS
England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland each have different University systems and lengths for the normal degrees which they provide. They also vary in terms of course structure, and the way in which their university credits may be measured.
Most regular, full-time undergraduate degrees are 3 years long, except for Scotland where the duration of an undergraduate course (also known as Honours degree) is typically 4 years. After completing the courses, students are awarded with a Bachelor’s Degree (BA, BSc, BD…). Students in some universities of Scotland are awarded instead with a Master of Arts (Scottish MA) that is equivalent to the English bachelor’s degree. Master programmes and other postgraduate studies (MA, MSc, MLitt…) are usually 1 or 2 years long, while doctoral studies (PhD, Dphil) have a standard duration of 3-4 years.
A typical academic year has 3 terms with start dates that vary from each institution – some universities start in September whilst others start in October.
For a university degree to be considered appropriately qualified, it must meet a certain threshold of credits. The EU measures this with its European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (or ECTS), and it is a credit-measuring standard that is used to make EU-wide modules and degrees equivalent to one another. The EU standard for a full academic year is 60 ECTS. In England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a full academic year is 120 credits. So every 2 British credit points equal to 1 ECTS.
Undergraduate degrees: everything you need to know about your application
The reference site for submitting applications for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom is the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, or more simply UCAS. By signing up and paying a small administration fee (£26) you can send your application up to FIVE different courses.
The first step, therefore, will be to create your account on the UCAS website.
Once registered on the site you will be able to return to update or complete your application whenever you want (or rather, at any time within the deadline for submitting applications).
Personal statement
Once registered, you will need to write your personal statement. In the personal statement, you will have the opportunity to introduce yourself and explain to the universities why you believe you are the right candidate for a place in their courses. Everyone writes it their own way, but in general, your statement should answer these two questions:
Why are you interested in that course?
What life experiences, personal qualities and skills acquired in your school career show that you are suitable for that course?
Reference letter
In addition to the personal statement, another of the documents required to apply to UK universities is the reference letter.
The reference letter must be written (in English, of course) by someone who knows you and has followed your path. This could be, for example, a professor, a tutor, your coach or the teacher with whom you are preparing the English test. In this letter, your referee will need to explain the reasons why he believes you are capable of attending the course you are applying for.
Don’t remember to ask for the reference letter at the last moment! Take some time to identify the right referee and above all remember to contact them well in advance of the deadline for submitting applications (“well in advance” means weeks or months, not days).
Do not feel embarrassed to ask: writing reference letters is a very common thing in the world of academia and work. Professors, supervisors and tutors do it often, and this task is fully part of the duties of the profession. However, it is perfectly understandable that some referees are not practical in writing the recommendation letter in another language, or that they may not know exactly which guidelines to follow in order to write a convincing letter. With the guidelines of our team of experts and career coaches, DreamanDo can help you secure the perfect reference letter to go with your application.
Deadlines
Finally, the only other thing you will have to worry about is respecting the expiration dates. The UCAS site manages the applications automatically; once the time set for submitting applications has passed, it will not be possible to remedy the error in any way.
Not all universities and not all courses have the same due dates. For most courses and universities, the “day X” for submitting applications is January 15th at 6pm (GMT +0). To study at Oxford and Cambridge or to enroll in medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses, however, applications must be submitted three months before, in October (the exact date changes every year). For some art institutes and design courses, the deadline is March.
Did you miss the January deadline? There is still a chance for you to enrol: you can submit the application by June 30, but the universities will have already started by January to assign the places available for their courses, so there is a serious risk (or in some cases, mathematics certainty) that you will not be admitted if the courses you have applied for are already full. From 1 July onwards, the applications submitted will automatically go into ‘clearing’: that is, if there are still places left in some courses, the universities will evaluate whether to accept applications sent after the deadline dates.
The advice is obvious: do not wait until the last minute to send your application!
Even if you have everything ready to be sent, always leave an adequate amount of time between the moment you send the application and the final deadline. An unexpected connection problem or a computer malfunction could ruin everything.
We of the DreamanDo team have seen it happen … But by relying on our services, you can be sure to receive not only all the assistance you need in case of last-minute emergencies, but above all we will help you to ensure you submit your application on time and without stress.
University fees: what is there to know?
The cost of tuition fees varies from institution to institution and from state to state: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different rules and rates in higher education. What is certain is that now that Brexit has fully entered into force, starting from July 2021 the majority of students from EU and EEA states will no longer be able to use the Home Fee Status, which included a series of advantages, among which were lower tuition fees and greater access to the famous student loans and maintenance loans offered by the British government.
As of the 2021/2022 school year, as confirmed by the British government, things will change: students from EU states will be considered to all intents and purposes International Students.
In fact, until the 2020/2021 academic year, European and British students were considered au pair, paying the same rates (up to a maximum of £ 9250 per year for an undergraduate degree, comparable to our three-year degree). As of the 2021/2022 school year, as confirmed by the British government, things will change: students from EU states will be considered to all intents and purposes International Students, and as such they will pay much higher amounts. The forecast is that for EU students the annual costs for an undergraduate degree (with the exception of medical degrees, which are a separate case) could be between £10,000 and £26,000 per year.
Tuition fees for postgraduate degrees (the so-called “second level” degrees) are not subject to maximum cost thresholds; in the vast majority of cases, they are much more expensive than an undergraduate degree, with costs varying from university to university.
Author: Giulia Bernardini
Translators: Christian Caruncong, Giorgia Gobbi