Being A Mature Student...

Being A Mature Student...

i know a few people on here have done this, just asking for some advice on it really. Im thinking about applying to Newcastle Uni for a Chemical Engineering with Foundation Year MEng Honours degree. My lass says its easier for mature students because you dont necessarily need the qualifications college leavers need. Any advice on anything to do with uni would be much appreciated !

Zoe, Mr.B, Ruffers im looking at you lot here !

Ta

At Northumbria if you are looking at doing the foundation degree you don't need any A Levels, they do look at work/life experience in place of your a levels.

I think it depends on the course though. With my course, I was accepted on to the foundation degree but I could only study part time if I found a job relevant to the course. Luckily I did, but i know of some people were originally on my course and worked part time, when they were made redundant last year they had to join year 2 but in the full time course instead.

You looking at full or part time??

Tbh getting access to something like chemical engineering will take industry background and HND/HNC to get onto the foundation course.

Also you will have to show a strong understanding on maths, normally they will put a side things like entry requirements for mature students with 10-20yrs worth of relevant experience but as I understand it Adam you're 24/25, which will probably go against you as a mature student unless you've went through the other college courses before hand.

A good way to find out is to ring the admissions tutor and talk to them, if they like you they will pull strings but Newcastle is a red brick uni, go for it tho if you want to do it.

you want to make your own drugs

I was a mature student and all I know is that it was such a benefit to have some experience of the world before doing a degree. I had a massive advantage over people who came straight from school and was more confident and able to make more of it than they could. Also it's great to do something you really want to do when you want to do it and not just feel on a conveyor belt from school to college to work without ever getting the time to find out who you really are and what you really want. And I only did fine art. With Chemical Engineering you might end up with a real career. And be able to make your own drugs.

It might be different for music, but for something like chemical engineering and the mature students I met while doing Engineering at both Manchester and Newcastle they were all 35-40+ with experience in that field as a technician or something similiar.

As I said just going from my experience.

taken from the course listing:

Do I need to have studied maths before?

No. Even if you haven't taken maths at A level (or equivalent), you can still study chemical engineering at Newcastle. You can apply for a Foundation Year course, although of course you still need to have university level entrance qualifications and GCSEs (or equivalent) in maths and science. You should also be happy with the idea that you'll have to learn to use them as an important engineering tool!

During the Foundation Year course, you take around half your modules in mathematics, mechanical sciences and applied mechanics. The rest of your time is spent on engineering subjects. You also undertake project and laboratory work related to chemical engineering. Successful completion of this lets you onto a degree programme.

The Foundation Year is broadly common to all the engineering courses at Newcastle. This means you can even transfer from one course to another if your interests change.

- its been so long since ive needed to use maths ive all but forgotten it, but im sure i still have a gcse C in it.

Also Chemical engineers design and maintain chemical plants, industrial chemists make drugs.

Just as an example, I did engineering at uni and a MSc at newcastle and I find the maths hard, I got an A at A Level and wish I did further maths when starting, they do teach you the maths but you do really have to be very good with maths to finish the course.

yeah it looks like ill definately have to do the access course, i can barely remember my 8x tables.

Totally agree with Forks, cant argue any point!

Advice I got from other people before I enrolled with Uni was to do an access course in construction and maths then go to university (I'm training to be a Quantity Surveyor). When I rang the Built Environment department of Northumbria Uni they told me not to take that advice and knock off 2 years of my study by doing the 3 years foundation degree then join the BSc degree in year 3 and complete that course which is a total of 6 years.

However, it could be totally different for the course you are looking in to.

My previous work experience has no relevence to the Built environment! The only requirement was as stated above, I had to make sure I secured employment with a job relevant to the course by the time I started University.

Adam, I have been out of an academic environment for 10 years, I never wrote an essay in my life but my average grade for my first year was around 65% you have all the support you need at the university! You can enrol on separate modules at University to get back into the academic side of the course, I done one course an hour a week for 6 weeks on how to write an essay

I have plenty maths books you can lend to to refresh your memory if you want them??

the filth tried to say my pal who studied chem eng only did it so he could make drugs. this of course was completely untrue and they couldnt prove it

and change the course to industrial chemistry

i can see rossy living like michael caine in a children of men in 20 years

I agree, I'm doing a Foundation Degree in Civil Engineering at the minute and the maths is hard, not impossible though. And it would help if I didn't have a fucking iranian maths teacher who can barely spell.

If you are confident in maths I think you should apply for the normal MEng degree (without the foundation year). The only main requiremnt for the course is that you can do maths. Even so, I did Chemical Engineering at Newcastle uni and they teach you most of the maths you need to know in the 1st year. I got a C in A Level maths and managed ok without the foundation course. The maths is hard but you get the help you need.

You don't need industrial experience to get on the course and in fact it is quite easy to get industrial experience while you are on the course (I worked for Rohm & Haas in Jarrow for a year).

Unfortunately I don't know owt about making drugs, that's what you learn in Chemistry. However I have learned how to design breweries and munitions processes!

Anyway as N.C. says, it's best to clear things up with the admissions secretary. Staff contact details can be found here
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ceam/staff/role/

Thanks Cougar thats really helpful. As i say i havent needed my maths since leaving school, and i think id be more confident doing the foundation course as well.

Ive had a bit of industrial experiance working in nuclear power stations but that is only really in the role of a safety guardian.