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Update for Teachers and Careers Professionals November 2011

 

This message includes a few items of news relevant to Aston University and HE Guidance in general. You are welcome to contact us if you have any comments or queries about these points.

  1. Aston announces major new Scholarships Programme for 2012 entry – including AAB+ Excellence Scholarships

  2. Admissions Conference January 6th 2012, Aston University – last few places available

  3. UCAS Applications and Admissions 2012

  4. Graduate Success letters to Schools/Colleges – Aston’s Class of 2011

  5. Aston University Engineering Academy for students aged 14-19

  6. Study Skills support for prospective students

  7. Masterclasses and other events on campus

1: Aston Excellence Scholarships Announced: Aston University received initial approval last week to improve existing income based scholarships and award Aston Excellence Scholarships worth £4,000 to UK/EU students entering in 2012 who achieve/exceed AAB at A level or equivalent.

This is in addition to our income based scholarships and subsidised placement year/year abroad - many Aston students will receive BOTH.

We will be writing to our UCAS offer holders by post with further details. A full list of AAB equivalent qualifications and grades will be published on our website.

Aston University already attracts high achievers. In 2010 and 2011 our average entry grade was just over ABB at A level with around 35% of our students achieving AAB or equivalent/higher. Aston will of course continue to admit students with lower grades than AAB, as stated in our undergraduate prospectus. Most Aston students are required to achieve between BBB-AAB at A level or a Triple Distinction at BTEC and we welcome a wide range of qualifications.

Our scholarships will be based on tuition fee discounts, including making the highly regarded Aston Placement year or Year Abroad fee-free for the majority of our UK/EU students. The additional year makes a massive difference to students’ knowledge, experience and graduate employment success. We are also committing to free additional modern language tuition to all our students into 2012.

Read more at www.aston.ac.uk/scholarships

Please feel free to make your prospective students aware of these opportunities that will make a real difference to their graduate contributions and student loan commitments.

2: Aston’s 17th Annual Admissions and HE Guidance Conference for Teachers and Careers Advisers is on Friday 6th January 2012.  

The 2012 programme promises to be the best yet. Speakers include Mary Curnock Cook, Chief Executive of UCAS and HE Guidance colleagues from Kings College London, Edinburgh University, Aber and Student Finance England. There will be lots of input as always from Aston University including from our Vice Chancellor Professor Julia King.

Booking is now available, admission is free, booking essential with the last 20 or so places remaining.

3: UCAS applications 2012 entry. The press (BBC, Guardian, UCAS.com) is reporting a 15% decline in UCAS applications for 2012 entry from UK students to all UK Universities. The deadline is not until 15th January so any interim stats should be treated with caution.

However, if your students wish to apply to Aston and University in general we encourage them to be positive and to do so. Higher Education is a risk free investment, even with the new fees and finance structure.  It is not all bad news for graduates - it depends where you study. The life changing experiences, access to networks, friends and opportunity to study a subject of interest at a high level cannot be underestimated.

We are all in the business of changing lives, educating the leaders of the future and pushing the boundaries of theory and practice. As always if my Aston team or my colleagues at other UK Universities can help get the message out over the next few months, please get in touch.

4: Graduate Success at Aston University. We are immensely proud of our students achievements. We will be writing to Heads and Principals with the names and degrees of their/your former students from Aston’s Class of 2011 in January 2012.

Government HESA data published in September 2011 confirmed Aston’s consistently excellent record for graduate employment success. Not even Oxford and Cambridge could beat Aston’s 2010 graduates for the proportion entering “Graduate Level” jobs according to the 2012 Sunday Times University Guide. This was 87.7% against a UK average of 70%, placing Aston 5th behind LSE, Imperial and two other University of London Colleges. Aston also again had the highest percentage of all Universities with students enrolled on sandwich/year abroad programmes at 60%. Only 4 UK Universities had percentages over 50%: Aston, Bath, Surrey, UIster.

5: Aston University 14-19 Engineering Academy. This ground breaking Academy will open in 2012 with intakes of 14 and 16 year old students on a purpose built site close to campus, one of a select number of University Technical Colleges (UTCs) across the UK. Open Days and open evenings are taking place regularly on campus. Colleagues who are interested in the development of the Academy and UTCs can contact Lee Kilgour, Principal Designate: lee.kilgour@aston.ac.uk

6: Aston University’s Learning Development Centre has launched a website aimed at supporting students with the transition between School/College and University. The “Get Ahead” website also showcases some of the established in-house study support and guidance our own students receive before and after enrolment.

7: Aston University’s Programme of Year 12/13 Masterclasses has been released for 2012.  Aston is also still the regional contact point for the Excellence Hub for Gifted/Talented Activities and Routes into Languages Programme.

James Seymour
Head of Schools and Colleges Liaison

Aston University       
Aston Triangle
Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK

0121 204 4771 .        
j.r.seymour@aston.ac.uk

Services for Schools, Colleges, Prospective Students and Parents: www.aston.ac.uk/schliaison  

www.aston.ac.uk