Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with university and UK

Help my American girlfriend become a Mrs. McCluskey (UK teacher)!

almostwitty — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:52:36 -0800

My (American) girlfriend is looking to come over to London to study to become a teacher. She already has a certificate substitute teacher licence ... but that's not much use in the UK. Or is it ... ?

Anyway, are there any recommendations for good/cheap universities that offer a teacher training course? Or any way of doing it?

I would make tea at the BBC.

lhude sing cuccu — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:22:36 -0800

What would be the best route to go after finishing an AS degree? Many questions about New England, and the regular England, rolled into one inside. I am starting community college in 2 weeks and, even though school hasn't even started yet, I've started to look ahead. I'm trying to figure out what I should do when I've graduated. I don't want to do anything impulsive; something fun for now but just expensive in the long run.
I live in Virginia, and I'm lucky because financial aid grants are covering me so far, but it's going to take a lot of research to keep myself out of debt when I go on to transfer.
I've started realising that the nagging feeling telling me to move out of the US isn't going away, and although going to an in-state school and just studying abroad would be the most logical option in the minds of most, of course I have to keep on until I uncover my every option.

1. I don't really want to stay in Virginia, but if it comes to paying $8,000 instead of $20,000, I will do it. I would like to find a college in New England to go to, one that has very good financial aid.
I found a place called Williams College in MA, which I just loved as soon as I saw the front page of the website, but they said they only accept about 4 out of the 110 transfer applicants they get each year. (?!) I couldn't compete with that, even if I did get a 4.0 GPA. (They also want a high school transcript, and my 1.5 GPA won't help me there. I am going to community college to start over.)
How can I find colleges in New England (DC to Maine) that have really decent need-based aid?

2. I've wanted to move to the UK for 5 going on 6 years now. I know I should study abroad first to see if I even like it, but I wonder what would really be the best option in case I did like it. If I studied abroad, I'd have to graduate at that US college, and I don't know what kind of visa I would even qualify for after graduating. I heard the best visa to get would be a student visa, and the fact that it can lead to a Tier 1 visa makes it sound even better. Should I just go for a non-study UK visit first? I could plan a trip. And take the train around.

3. More general UK questions. Is England really going "downhill" like I've heard so many times? Am I just so enchanted by the BBC that it's clouded my judgment? I'd consider moving to Wales, maybe Scotland, but I am most attached to England. What are the facts here? I haven't heard anything except for the vague..."You'll never get a job...it's all just immigrants living there now...British people are all trying to move to the US now..." Maybe it was all just said by a bunch of people who lived in and hated London. Isn't the US just as bad, or am I missing something?

4. More importantly, would I even be able to get a job? Or do they give all the jobs to EU students and I could never do anything except answer phones until I die? And what's all this about "No self-employment"? Will I be able to play my guitar in my one-man band anymore?

5. Is there any way to immigrate that is as simple as the Tier 4 Student Visa seems? Immigration, of course, is just speculative. I don't know what I'm planning to become, but I'm sure I won't make enough money to get all the points I would need to be a "highly skilled worker".

6. Would I be able to afford living in the UK? I lived in Chicago for a year just fine; sure I had financial aid and a job though. Are the grants/scholarships available to the average everyday non-handicapped/veteran/singlemom/hispanic/4.5GPA people like me?

If I could only afford to study abroad, I guess I wouldn't die, but that leads back around to question #1 again.
Or maybe...go to college in-state and transfer in? What does a BA count for there? Do I have to complete a whole BA degree in the UK to qualify for the Tier 1 Post-Study Visa?

7. Will they hate me, an American? I don't pick up a lot of enemies easily, but you never know.

Apparently, an AS degree is only equivalent to a Foundation Degree and I'd have to go for the full 3 years to get a BA. Those over-achievers.
Maybe I should call a university and ask, but it always seems like they know as much as I do at their international office, and different schools might have different rules.

I think that's it. Thanks for any and all advice you can give me. I guess I'm just trying to do the all-elusive "do what I want and not lose any money doing it". I've read other questions here about moving, but it seems like they all already had some kind of job lined up, which I am far, far away from having.

And sorry my questions are always so darn long.

The Bank of Mum and Dad

Wilder — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:41:21 -0800

How do we best finance our daughter's Irish University career (we're in the UK)? We're Irish, 8 years resident in UK. Daughter started a university course in Ireland last September.

Problem: we had saved enough for year 1 and Grandmother always offered to finance the rest. (Daughter contributes 20% through a summer job) But she very recently changed her mind as our daughter's focus has gone more towards the language and linguistics part of her degree course, as opposed to the Psychology part which Grannie favours.
We're very happy that she has discovered something in her first year that makes her passionate, so we support her choice and her results speak for themselves.
Daughter perfectly happy to get student loan but she has been turned down here in the UK as the course she accepted is in the Republic of Ireland. There is no student loan system in Ireland that we can identify.

So, as we had not planned on being in this position, we hadn't researched it enough, (and we are too ignorant of the tax system here. We are both PAYE workers) so Mefites, what are our best options?
We have good equity in our home and presently have a mortgage for about 50% of the current market value. Should we remortgage at these historically low rates and give her a loan from the Bank of Mum & Dad?
Do we gift her some money which might have tax advantages for us?
She will need approx 10,000 Euros a year as she gets a summer job that earns her a 2,000 euro surplus to put towards the costs

Unmarried academics seek UK immigration advice

tractorfeed — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:55:23 -0800

How can I accompany my unmarried non-same-sex partner who has been offered a job in the UK? We're both US citizens, we've been living together for over a decade, and now my partner has been offered a job as a professor at a university in the UK. I'm in the process of getting my PhD, I'm happy to move overseas, and it's feasible for me to do so financially and academically, but I'm unsure as to what my visa status might be. We're not married, nor do we live in a state that allows heterosexual couples to enter into civil unions or domestic parnerships, which is what we'd do if we could (marriage is not for us, for a variety of reasons). His visa situation is going to be handled by the HR department of the university, but we'd like a little more information before we consider asking them to help with my visa. His job is permanent, and falls under the category of "highly-skilled" (i.e. they did an international job search and he was considered the best candidate). Basically we don't want to find ourselves in a situation where we feel pressured to get married just to make things easier. Is my situation any different from any random US citizen with half a PhD who wants to live/eventually work in the UK? Or is my situation different because we're together (although we're not in any legal sense)? I think we'd be ok with a civil union in the UK if that would help.

Presentation tips and advice

philsi — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:47:06 -0800

What are the best ways to encourage audience participation and reception of potentially boring presentations? I have two presentations late November / early December and want to keep people alert and do a memorable presentation. What tricks did the best / most memorable presentations you have seen use? I have two presentations to give in late November and early December, one as part of a group of four people on "Ethical Fashion in the UK" with an emphasis on child labour, and the other as part of a group of three people on the financial impacts of organisations going green. Both are around the 20 minute mark.

We have all the material we need, and are just organising into a suitable order, but need some interesting ways to encourage audience participation, and keep everyone interested (other than the usual "don't just read slides" / "don't mumble" / "don't put too much on slides" advice)

I've tried googling around, but have only found the usual "PowerPoint no-nos" and usual tips about talking clearly / not relying on PowerPoint too much. Any links to websites greatly received.

If it makes any difference, this is for a final year Business Management degree in the UK.

Help me finish my degree

F.Jasmine Addams — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:50:11 -0800

I completed about 3/4 of the requirements for a BA in history at a US university. I last attended about three years ago. I now want to complete my degree, but I am permanently settled in the UK. Going back to the states isn't an option, so I need to either find an accredited university with an online program based in the US that will accept my credit hours from the University of Tennessee, or I need to somehow finish my degree at a university here in the UK. I think the classroom experience is important for a history degree, so I would actually prefer the second option, as long as my credits from the US could somehow be converted to at least half of the requirements for a history degree here in the UK - I don't mind going back to school for a year-and-a-half, but I don't want to go back for another three years. I also wouldn't mind taking A-levels, if necessary.

This is my first foray into this idea, I will of course do some research and speak to people at my old university and at local universities here in Birmingham, but I am just looking to hear your experiences or your opinions about the viability of my ideas.

Can I get EU resident status for university if my spouse is an EU citizen?

ursus_comiter — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:43:51 -0800

Can I leverage being the spouse of an EU citizen to get UK/EU rates for a postgraduate program in the UK? Next year I intend to apply to a number of UK universities for a taught masters program. I'm a US citizen currently living in NYC with my spouse. She's an EU citizen. How can this affect my status as an international student in the UK? The web sites I've looked at simply list rates for UK/EU residents and for overseas students, but I haven't seen anything about how one qualifies as the former.

I could ask at the various universities, but I'm chary of getting into it with their financial departments unless I know it's worth the effort.

What are the key culture changes between UK and US Universities?

philsi — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:56:56 -0800

I've got the opportunity to do an American Exchange next Autumn from my UK University for about 15 weeks. What are the key culture changes that I'll experience? Of course, there's This will be only my second time out of the UK, and am wondering what the key changes between UK and US universities are. I'll most probably be going to Southern Oregon, or a small chance of the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire or Southern Maine.

I know that it's quite likely that I'll have a room mate (which I don't have at the moment) and have to share other facailities, but what other changes will I find? Will it be more restrictive than UK University? I know I won't be able to drink (not the biggest catastrophe ever) but any other key changes?

Finally, any comments about the usefullness of an exchange? I'm thinking it'll be a great thing for employers when I get a career on the basis I can survive in a foreign country for an extended period of time.

Anecdotes are especially welcome, and any university specific comments are welcome too!

Thanks for your input guys.

Useful University moving in tips?

philsi — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:53:09 -0800

Any useful tips for settling in to first week in college / university? Any funny anecdotes of your first week in college / university? Next Tuesday I'm off to university (Winchester in the UK if it makes any difference), and it's going to be my first time living away from home, with new people, and wondered if people have any useful tips for settling in, living in shared accomodation for the first time (there will be 6 or 8 bedrooms going onto an adjoining kitchen area)? Social tips for those of us who aren't big drinkers?

Any key hints / tips that you found helpful / were told were important but not?

Roehampton Creative Writing Masters

0bvious — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 14:44:00 -0800

What do you know/think about the University of Roehampton, London? Most especially I am interested in its School of Arts, and its MA in Creative and Professional Writing.... Good uni? Did you attend there? What are your experiences of the Roehampton area?

Any info gratefully appreciated

Will a UK post-grad diploma help me get an MA in the US?

parmanparman — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:36:46 -0800

I have a post-graduate diploma from England and want to finish my MA, but the requirements are unreal. Should I scrap and start over in the US? I have a post-graduate diploma (a degree one-below an MA) in broadcast journalism from a university in England, and was planning on getting my masters but got a job before MA work started and took the job. Now I am back in the states working in in radio and want to finish my MA. The requirements mean that whatever I do, it needs to be done for a British broadcasting organization, which means that my own show, which would be happy to have my work, is out of the picture. I would love to finish my MA in journalism. Any advice on whether schools would let me transfer my post-grad diploma and just let me start my thesis, or would I have to start over from scratch would be appreciated. Anyone else have to deal with this kind of thing? I am American, btw.

After 'A' Levels: advice and recommendations for a university undergraduate.

dash_slot- — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:09:35 -0800

What would you say to a reasonably bright (nearly) 19 year old at this stage of her life? My daughter finishes her 'A' Levels next week. She has studied sciences - psychology, biology & chemistry, and it looks like she's going to do well - if she gets, as expected, either AAB for Bristol University or ABB for Sussex (Brighton), she's set up.

Which books, which films, even which bands should she not be ignorant of? Any aphorisms, mottos & bon mots - all words of wisdom are welcome: especially those that you wish you had heard when you were a girl of that age (hell, if you are a girl of that age, tell me, what would you want to be told!)