r/MatureStudentsUK

hi (sorry for anything that doesn’t make sense i haven’t posted before) so i have been wanting to go back to uni after 2 times, the first i was there for a week or so in 2021 and dropped out due to mental health reasons, then the second in 2025 after 3 days of induction week also due to mental health reasons (shocking i know) ive had some time for things to improve and have gotten to the point of wanting to apply and actually do it this time but the problem is from what i’ve seen surely im but eligible for a full tuition loan because of this (i think anyway) or having a compelling reason that i left. Any help would be great

I’m considering doing an Access to HE course next year but I’m really conflicted and wanted advice from people who may have been in a similar situation.

For context, I originally went to university for Computer Science but things didn’t go well academically or personally and I’ve most likely failed my foundation year. I currently have BTEC Level 3 grades of MMP in IT. I know I can still get into some universities with those grades, but the issue is that I feel like they don’t reflect my actual potential due to a lot of personal difficulties I was dealing with at the time.

I recently went to a consultation at a College and they told me I could still apply to universities now with my current qualifications, but I keep thinking about whether doing an Access course could give me a second chance academically and help me aim for stronger universities later on.

At the same time, I’m worried about:
• being older than everyone else
• spending extra years in education
• whether universities will still make me redo a foundation year anyway
• whether I’m wasting time when I could just apply somewhere now

Part of me wants to move on immediately and continue with university, but another part of me feels like I’ll regret not trying to improve my academic profile first.

Has anyone here done an Access course after struggling at university or after getting grades they felt didn’t represent them? Did it help you get into better universities or feel more confident academically?

Edit: I also wanted to add some context because people are assuming I’m “not ready for university” purely because I failed academically.

I previously made a long post on r/UniUK talking about my negative experience at the university I attended. Someone replied saying that I wasn’t ready for university. I responded calmly saying that failing academically or failing a foundation year does not automatically mean someone is incapable of university, and that dismissing people’s personal circumstances can come across as harsh and invalidating. I didn’t insult them or become aggressive.

After that, I was called immature by an entirely different person and told I shouldn’t attend any university at all.

I’m aware I made mistakes academically, but I also know the circumstances that affected my performance and I know I’m capable of more than what my grades currently show. Part of why I’m considering an Access course is because I genuinely want to rebuild myself academically instead of pretending everything went perfectly.

Hi,

I wondered if any older, wiser people could give me some advice please.

I attended Cambridge uni and withdrew a few years ago after the first year despite getting a decent grade. it was less so the work as the subject wasnt too difficult but I was spiralling so deep into depression that I lost all motivation and desire for any sort of future and decided to withdraw so I didn't completely lose the will to live. I felt very isolated, judged, and I would be so upset daily that it was distracting from my studies. I had sleep paralysis every night I was in Cambridge which relieved itself when I left. I dont have a stable home life and had a very difficult upbringing which added to my issues, probably not the unis fault rather my own issues resurfacing in an isolating environment.

I am applying to study again after a break and gaining my perspective and mental health back, I am excited to study again at a different university.

I now have the desire to make a good career and life for myself, Cambridge crushed my spirit for a while and I went off grid and completely rejected any sense of normal society for a while. I had always thrived and been happy and sociable, and very motivated before but this environment was really soul crushing for me, despite the lovely tutors and great education standards.

I do regret leaving in heinsight, as I have to pay to study again and will be a mature student and I do wish I had the Cambridge Brand to put on my CV, but this is a regret I will learn to deal with.

I dont have any family who have a corporate career, or a happy career, and i just wanted to hear from others who maybe started this route later than the 'norm' and have gone on to find happiness!

I also wanted to hear from people who didn't go to Cambridge uni and are happy in their careers/ law school, as inspiration always helps! Or from individuals who went to oxbridge and changed environent and thrived.

I am constantly comparing myself to my fellow classmates who have all graduated now and who seem to be doing really well - although they were also doing really well when I was studying with them!

Im mid 20s now, looking to study law and go onto have a mentally stimulating career where I can also help disadvantaged people at some point in my life after i've got a good skillset.

Ive managed to make good money without a degree, travel the world and fix my mental health and grow up a lot, although im not mentally stimulated at all hence why i want to go back to study.

Thanks for your time, have a good day/night!

I’m 21 and honestly feel really stuck in life right now. I did poorly in my A-levels at 18, but looking back, I had a lot of personal circumstances going on at the time and I don’t think my grades reflected my actual ability at all. I know people always say that, but throughout school I was naturally quite intelligent and when I actually apply myself I do well.
Now I’m seriously considering redoing my A-levels because I don’t want doors closed for me long term, especially for university and future careers. I’d be doing Cambridge CAIE International A-levels in the October/November session because they offer exams then, but that’s only around 4.5 months away.
The subjects would likely be:
Psychology
Business
Geography
I’ve studied all of them before so I’m not starting completely from scratch, although realistically Geography is the only one I’m genuinely strong at currently. Business and Psychology I have background knowledge in but definitely not enough right now to comfortably get high grades.
The issue is I work full time, so I’m trying to figure out whether this is actually realistic or if I’m being delusional. Has anyone here gone from poor grades / almost no revision to A’s or B’s in around 4-5 months while working? Especially with CAIE?
Be brutally honest, is it possible to scrape A/B grades if I dedicate myself from now until October/November, and roughly how many hours a day would I realistically need to study?

I can't drive, so I couldn't pursue the course I actually wanted to do — OT.

Ended up in a social work undergrad course, and long story short, I strongly disliked it. The first year was awful due to staff quitting mid-way, which is understandable — they were treated awfully. The support from the university itself was just not good whatsoever.

Anyways, I'm withdrawing, and I feel I've just messed everything up. I'm a failure. I got all distinctions in my access to HE, and now I'm inclined to believe it wasn't because I was capable, but maybe they just wanted better ratings? To look better?

I've made up my mind about the course. I won't be returning. I really wanted university to work. I had feelings it wasn't the right course for me, but everyone told me to push through. I shouldn't have, and that's absolutely my fault. So now I've technically used up two years, and I have nothing to show for it. I'm a failure. I can try to aim for CPR at SFE, seeing as I'm withdrawing due to medical reasons, but my mental health isn't a good enough reason.

Some Art Foundation courses are free if they're part of a HE college, and some are paid for (if at a uni).

I'm looking for either type but ones that are high quality and hopefully have a mixed age of students as I am quite a bit older that 16-18!

Hi guys, I feel a bit silly asking this, but I want to make a good impression, I’m thinking smart casual, (quarter zip jumper, trousers, shoes), is that appropriate or am I overthinking this?

Thanks.

Is it even worth doing a degree atp

got an offer for Access to Combined Medicine, but my plan was to apply for Pharmacy afterwards.
The problem is that recently I keep hearing people say pharmacy in the UK is oversaturated now, jobs are getting harder to find, it’s not secure anymore, and that a lot of graduates struggle after uni. Some people are even telling me it’s basically 50/50 whether you get a good job afterwards and that I’d be better off choosing a different degree.
Now I’m honestly really unsure what to do. I already got the offer and filled everything out, but if I don’t go down the pharmacy route, I genuinely don’t even know what else I’d do.
People already in pharmacy (or graduates), what’s the reality actually like right now in the UK? Is it really that bad or is social media exaggerating it

I have finished my access to HE diploma and now it has been sent for moderation, i was wondering how the moderation process works? How long does it take and how do they mark it? Do they just check my work using 5 do they use some external programs?

In my science GCSEs my teachers essentially told me I’d do terribly in my exams so I did triple foundation(which I regret terribly) in the end I ended up getting 5s on all my sciences and I now find myself doing unrelated A levels that Im not really interested in. I wanted to do more science based courses and I looked into it but BTEC science (lower qualifications) is either unavailable or too far away for me to realistically do so i now really only have one option i think and it’s Access to higher education. Now, I have no frame of reference so forgive me if my questions come off as a bit stupid but what is access to higher education like? Is it hard or competitive to get into? If it isn’t then is access actually credible or respectable? Is it course or is there exams? Is it online or in person? how hard is it to keep up with? After all it is a year when a levels are two. And to be honest what Im most worried about is the financial and time strain as I can very quickly get behind my age group and if employers would employ younger more credible applicants if I ever decide and succeed in specialising in science. Right now my idea is to ask my tutor to retaking math gcse higher and boost my grades in that as high as possible while I still can.
Is there anything more i can be doing now or another route that Im missing? Im aware that I need to be 19 to do access so I still have time but I m very uncertain as to what I can realistically do or if I’m just better off abandoning that idea which would be a shame as im willing to put in the effort.

As I have previously posted, I have been rejected from all my uni choices and UCAS gave me an extra choice option but I do not know what to do. I cannot move out of London and there are only two universities in London that offer this course. Should I risk a gap year to reapply for the first year course next year, or apply for a foundation year?

I am getting distinctions in my Access course but I am 23, have already taken gap years and have poor track record with interviews. An extra year of debt feels daunting, especially for a degree that will only land me a poorly paid NHS job.

I’m looking into starting an access to HE in Science as like I’m sure most of you here, I want to make a change how life currently is and want to do something useful for myself. I’m 24 and have been out of education almost 10 years now. I left school with pretty much no GCSEs but mostly due to things going on in my life at the time.

But basically my question is how basic does the access course begin. I understand it’s A-Level equivalent but does it ease you in slowly and recap on the basics or is it straight into A-level standard immediately once starting. I’m just trying to weigh up my options and see whether I should do the GCSE course first or if I’d be okay going straight to the access course.

My sister is currently doing her GCSE’s and to help her find her biology revision a bit more fun before she took the exam we both did a higher biology past paper together, fully expecting to laugh at the score I got but I was pleasantly surprised and looking at the grade boundaries for that years paper I would’ve got around a grade 7 so I’ve got the basic GCSE level knowledge just not the piece of paper to prove it 🤣 but how important would it be for me to have the GCSE when applying to university if I was to pass the access course?

Also from what I’ve seen the access to science includes all three sciences. Is that set as standard and you have to do a mix of the three throughout the course or can you pick your preference and have it in one of the three sciences?

I’m in first year at 21 and I became close with my flatmate since freshers who’s 20, they’re the only flatmate I get along with, the other seven are incredibly antisocial. I made a group of friends around that time from people in my cohort but then I also got introduced to my flatmates friends and became quite close with them over first term and we’d hang out regularly.

I came back in term two and we went out and handful of times and then they just stopped inviting me out. They still talk to me in the flat and they still do things with me outside sometimes but It feels like It’s literally only when their friends are busy or unavailable. I even explicitly told them casually to invite me out the next they go out, they said they would, and even when catching up with someone from the friend group I even mentioned it to them as well that I never get invited anymore. They still never invited me.

The result of this was I felt so lonely and depressed and abandoned, especially since the only other friend group I had has my ex girlfriend in it and we broke up in December, so I’m not close with any of them since. My grades tanked and I deferred several exams.

Today they literally had a barbecue since most of us are done with exams now and I never got invited. How I know is I messaged them to do something now that we’re done and they said they’re busy going to a barbecue, without inviting me to come along as well. Like how am I trying to hang out with you and you still don’t invite me?

It just makes me feel like the biggest loser alone all the time and cooling off exams by myself only, and not by choice either.

What advice do you guys have for making new friends at this stage in uni?

How do I even approach making new friends when groups are already established?

How am I supposed to act with this flatmate and this friend group when it literally feels like I’ve been snaked by them?

Hey guys, I was wondering if I would be eligible to do an access medicine course, my GCSE’s are fine for med but when I did my AS levels about 11 years ago, I got UUE in chem/maths/bio, (I was ill at the time, didn’t anyone or tell my school so had no support)

Would this make me ineligible to apply to any med unis, even if I do an access course and got the required marks, would they still reject me due to my bad AS level grades?

Thanks for any help or advice.

I did my access course online through DLC and got around 51 distinctions given by my tutor, and now it has been sent for moderation to ascentis. Will they mark my assessment differently from my tutor? And how long will they take to send me the diploma so i upload it to my uni?