Applying to UK uni from Oz - URGENT UCAS deadline looming.

[mrsindecision]

Hi there am hoping someone has been through this before - we are returning later this year and my son is now applying to unis in UK through UCAS. We want to make a case for domestic fees based on the fact that my son was a minor when we came two years ago and therefore he had no choice but to come with us.

 

We have to state on the UCAS form our postal and residential addresses which are currently Australia. We have been advised by a colleague in Uk to put down parents address in UK as residential address ( where our UK bank accounts, credit cards etc.. are registered to), but it is obvious from rest of form ( school details , references etc) that we are still in OZ.

 

We thought we could put Oz down as postal address and UK down as permanent home address. We dont want to get in any trouble and affect his chances of getting in.

 

Has anyone done anything similar??

 

Thanks for any help of advice you might have.

[Rudi]

Hi there am hoping someone has been through this before - we are returning later this year and my son is now applying to unis in UK through UCAS. We want to make a case for domestic fees based on the fact that my son was a minor when we came two years ago and therefore he had no choice but to come with us.

 

We have to state on the UCAS form our postal and residential addresses which are currently Australia. We have been advised by a colleague in Uk to put down parents address in UK as residential address ( where our UK bank accounts, credit cards etc.. are registered to), but it is obvious from rest of form ( school details , references etc) that we are still in OZ.

 

We thought we could put Oz down as postal address and UK down as permanent home address. We dont want to get in any trouble and affect his chances of getting in.

 

Has anyone done anything similar??

 

Thanks for any help of advice you might have.

 

Try contacting Ezzie who posts on here. She's been through lots of stuff to do with this, so she may have some advice for you.

 

Love

 

Rudi

x

[Guest MSTO]

Hi there am hoping someone has been through this before - we are returning later this year and my son is now applying to unis in UK through UCAS. We want to make a case for domestic fees based on the fact that my son was a minor when we came two years ago and therefore he had no choice but to come with us.

 

We have to state on the UCAS form our postal and residential addresses which are currently Australia. We have been advised by a colleague in Uk to put down parents address in UK as residential address ( where our UK bank accounts, credit cards etc.. are registered to), but it is obvious from rest of form ( school details , references etc) that we are still in OZ.

 

We thought we could put Oz down as postal address and UK down as permanent home address. We dont want to get in any trouble and affect his chances of getting in.

 

Has anyone done anything similar??

 

Thanks for any help of advice you might have.

 

If you also try contacting ElizaBee she is also going back to the UK with a daughter who is going to Uni so she may have some info too.

 

Good Luck:biggrin:

[Guest dancam910]

I know you only have to pay the international fees if you have been out for the UK for over three years. This policy does vary dependant upon the University you applying to. UCAS is only an application centre to filter and process the applications and then pass them onto the relevant Universities you are applying to.

 

It would be better if you spoke directly to the Universities your son is applying to and get more information from them. They usually have information on course fees etc... on the University webpages.

[Eera]

I used to do university admissions, the criteria was used (this was 5 years ago) was that you had to be in the UK for 3 years immediately prior to admission for reasons other than higher education.

 

If the parents had migrated without any intention of it being temporary (i.e. they weren't in the navy on overseas posting for example, and had effectively severed their own ties with the UK intentionally), then the child was regarded as being overseas, the age of the child was irrelevent, it was the parent's responsability.

 

It does, however, get looked at on a case-by-case basis. If you were on a 457 you could make the argument that it was only temporary and he should be regarded as a home student in that case. I can't ever recall International Admissions asking for proof of intent, so if you're in the country you could always say you were overseas for work reasons only. You generally needed to talk to each university individually as a lot depended on how strict the admissions officer was feeling on the day.

[mrsindecision]

We came over on a 457 but then were made PR after 6 months - requirement of labour agreement. Will talk to uni - in the meantime I have put postal address down as oz and then residential address and mother in law with view to negotiating with uni's.

 

Will have a bigger battle on my hands I think when number one son applies for graduate medicine for 2011 but we will have lived back in UK for some time by then (fingers crossed as medicine 25k per year).

 

Thanks

[Guest tiarna]

Was just wondering, are you moving back for a better uni education? Thinking about pros and coms for being in Oz or the UK and whether the education is better here or there?

[Eera]

From what you've said you sound like you have a case for being a home student; the agrement basically made you take out PR so you had no choice in the matter, and you always had the intent of returning (if they ask...)

 

Spell everything out to them and you should be OK, you can always appeal if they don't regard your son as home and that worked every time with us.

 

You may, however, run into problems with the Student Loan Company, it's well worthwhile getting confirmation from them that they will loan him the money (if he needs to go down that path) before he turns up in the UK; friend of mine lived in a convent in Spain for 2 years, then applied to Oxford, got in, and the SLC turned her down for a loan on the basis of her previous 2 years residency out of the UK. You don't want to go through all the crap with the university to find he can't get a loan to study in the first place.

[mrsindecision]

Was just wondering, are you moving back for a better uni education? Thinking about pros and coms for being in Oz or the UK and whether the education is better here or there?

 

Well this is my personal view and I am sure there are many people who have had a great expereince of the oz education system but for us it has been disappointing. My elder 2 went to a grammar school in England and had a superb education - very old school academic - but they ahave come out as intelligent vibrant young men with an opinion on the world and so on.

 

My eldest has gone to the local uni ( because he didn't want to move across the world and then move away from home) and the overall expereince has been disappointing not so much on teh standard of teaching although that is dodgy in places but more on the standards of his fellow students - with such low entry criteria he has been studying biomedicine alongsidepeople without basic maths and chemistry ability. He founf himslef becoming the class tutor and is so over that. Also hasnt got anyone to pull him along so the level of self motivation required is extremely high.

 

At school my kids go the best private school in the area with the highest academic standards - my son (number 2) completed year 12 and got 2 grades below what we would have expected in UK - admitedly he didnt apply himself enough early enough- but the teachers (despite us attending every parent teacher meeting and calling in between) kept saying all was good he was on track no worries. it turned out his assesment pieces were too ambitious for two subjects and this knocked him off kilter as he tried to complete them in time but to the detriment of other subjects. When I asked if anyone had reviewed the assessments and advised him both my son and the teachers said no - he seemed fine ( too late now). Their approach is so laid back that quite frankly I dont think they care - in UK they were on my elder son's back to push up his grades and as a result he went from Predicted Bs at A level to AAA. He wants to study animation and we see littel point in him pursuing this here as the industry links are weak and the chances of gaining employment in the sector at the end of it low.

 

My daughter is not academic and there is little guidance for her as to what to do next - she has worked really hard to lift her grades but is still dragging along with Cs - there is littleor no guidance on what to do next and I have been left running around trying to find all the info myself and for where we live I think the opportnites for my daughter dont exist unless she just wants to work in a shop. In the UK the FE system ismuch more developed than TAFE here and the opportunities to improve at a slower rate are there with good employer relations.

 

I work in education and overall I think they are still years behind UK they are just bringing in the National Curriculum and league tables just as the UK is changing from this becasue it didnt work.

 

For us and our particualr kids and their interests we are heading back to UK so they get the education we had always hoped for them - when you dont live in Oz your view of the country is very distorted - I always thoght they would have more opportunity here not less - but I was looking through a very limited inexperienced lens.

 

The disrunption is not easy and as you can see we run the risk of added complications now but I bleive we ahve to do this for them.

 

Sorry about typos and length of email but please do your research into the area you are moving to and think about the age of your kids before you leave.

[caramac]

Well this is my personal view and I am sure there are many people who have had a great expereince of the oz education system but for us it has been disappointing. My elder 2 went to a grammar school in England and had a superb education - very old school academic - but they ahave come out as intelligent vibrant young men with an opinion on the world and so on.

 

My eldest has gone to the local uni ( because he didn't want to move across the world and then move away from home) and the overall expereince has been disappointing not so much on teh standard of teaching although that is dodgy in places but more on the standards of his fellow students - with such low entry criteria he has been studying biomedicine alongsidepeople without basic maths and chemistry ability. He founf himslef becoming the class tutor and is so over that. Also hasnt got anyone to pull him along so the level of self motivation required is extremely high.

 

At school my kids go the best private school in the area with the highest academic standards - my son (number 2) completed year 12 and got 2 grades below what we would have expected in UK - admitedly he didnt apply himself enough early enough- but the teachers (despite us attending every parent teacher meeting and calling in between) kept saying all was good he was on track no worries. it turned out his assesment pieces were too ambitious for two subjects and this knocked him off kilter as he tried to complete them in time but to the detriment of other subjects. When I asked if anyone had reviewed the assessments and advised him both my son and the teachers said no - he seemed fine ( too late now). Their approach is so laid back that quite frankly I dont think they care - in UK they were on my elder son's back to push up his grades and as a result he went from Predicted Bs at A level to AAA. He wants to study animation and we see littel point in him pursuing this here as the industry links are weak and the chances of gaining employment in the sector at the end of it low.

 

My daughter is not academic and there is little guidance for her as to what to do next - she has worked really hard to lift her grades but is still dragging along with Cs - there is littleor no guidance on what to do next and I have been left running around trying to find all the info myself and for where we live I think the opportnites for my daughter dont exist unless she just wants to work in a shop. In the UK the FE system ismuch more developed than TAFE here and the opportunities to improve at a slower rate are there with good employer relations.

 

I work in education and overall I think they are still years behind UK they are just bringing in the National Curriculum and league tables just as the UK is changing from this becasue it didnt work.

 

For us and our particualr kids and their interests we are heading back to UK so they get the education we had always hoped for them - when you dont live in Oz your view of the country is very distorted - I always thoght they would have more opportunity here not less - but I was looking through a very limited inexperienced lens.

 

The disrunption is not easy and as you can see we run the risk of added complications now but I bleive we ahve to do this for them.

 

Sorry about typos and length of email but please do your research into the area you are moving to and think about the age of your kids before you leave.

 

Our experience was the same as yours. We left a very good school in the uk to go to an, apparently, very similar school in Sydney. After the first term we were told that our older two girls were about two years ahead in science and maths than their Australian peers, but we weren't to worry as the 'curriculum would catch up with them' (!) although 'we never reach the standard of the uk A levels'. That, coupled with a few too many teachers who should perhaps have considered a different career and that the girls absolutely hated the place, led us to the decision that we should return to the uk by Christmas (eldest daughter already missed the first term of gcse courses). So..... I'm here with the girls and my oh is still in Sydney waiting for a job to come up here. The girls started back at their old school last week and are so happy to be there. The teachers are being fantastic, making sure my eldest knows what she has to do to 'catch up' and adapting her coursework, where possible, to fit what she did in Aus last year. At the end of the week I asked my middle daughter what it was like to be back and she just said 'intelligent teaching, brilliant!'. It's not easy - particularly as my ability to help with gcse chemistry is nil - but Dad can still help via skype/facebook etc, thank goodness! - and hopefully something will appear for him in the next year, so we can all be together again before next Christmas, but it's worth it to see how happy all three girls are to be back.

Everyone's experience is different and we had a great one in Perth a few years ago, but this last year wasn't good and, as this school had been recommended by a lot of people we were wary of trying somewhere else at an important time in their education in case it wasn't any better and than it 'd be too late for us to return until they were all ready for university.

Good luck with your move - it's been cold and grey today, but it's still good to be here!

[Rodfan]

Well this is my personal view and I am sure there are many people who have had a great expereince of the oz education system but for us it has been disappointing. My elder 2 went to a grammar school in England and had a superb education - very old school academic - but they ahave come out as intelligent vibrant young men with an opinion on the world and so on.

 

My eldest has gone to the local uni ( because he didn't want to move across the world and then move away from home) and the overall expereince has been disappointing not so much on teh standard of teaching although that is dodgy in places but more on the standards of his fellow students - with such low entry criteria he has been studying biomedicine alongsidepeople without basic maths and chemistry ability. He founf himslef becoming the class tutor and is so over that. Also hasnt got anyone to pull him along so the level of self motivation required is extremely high.

 

At school my kids go the best private school in the area with the highest academic standards - my son (number 2) completed year 12 and got 2 grades below what we would have expected in UK - admitedly he didnt apply himself enough early enough- but the teachers (despite us attending every parent teacher meeting and calling in between) kept saying all was good he was on track no worries. it turned out his assesment pieces were too ambitious for two subjects and this knocked him off kilter as he tried to complete them in time but to the detriment of other subjects. When I asked if anyone had reviewed the assessments and advised him both my son and the teachers said no - he seemed fine ( too late now). Their approach is so laid back that quite frankly I dont think they care - in UK they were on my elder son's back to push up his grades and as a result he went from Predicted Bs at A level to AAA. He wants to study animation and we see littel point in him pursuing this here as the industry links are weak and the chances of gaining employment in the sector at the end of it low.

 

My daughter is not academic and there is little guidance for her as to what to do next - she has worked really hard to lift her grades but is still dragging along with Cs - there is littleor no guidance on what to do next and I have been left running around trying to find all the info myself and for where we live I think the opportnites for my daughter dont exist unless she just wants to work in a shop. In the UK the FE system ismuch more developed than TAFE here and the opportunities to improve at a slower rate are there with good employer relations.

 

I work in education and overall I think they are still years behind UK they are just bringing in the National Curriculum and league tables just as the UK is changing from this becasue it didnt work.

 

For us and our particualr kids and their interests we are heading back to UK so they get the education we had always hoped for them - when you dont live in Oz your view of the country is very distorted - I always thoght they would have more opportunity here not less - but I was looking through a very limited inexperienced lens.

 

The disrunption is not easy and as you can see we run the risk of added complications now but I bleive we ahve to do this for them.

 

Sorry about typos and length of email but please do your research into the area you are moving to and think about the age of your kids before you leave.

 

This is so true!!! BOY do I wish we had researched more into the Aussie Education system before we arrived taking our Son out of a good School in Scotland At 16 to a much more inferior Edu. system here, he also did not do as well I am sure as he would of back home, in my experience moving a child at this age is not a good idea and just one of the things that put us off OZ straight away. In some ways although our Son like's it here (more his social life) he saw School here as a skive!! where he had previously worked quite hard... I think as parent's we will feel eternally guilty for moving him when we did!