Is there a maximum legal age for attending school or sixth form college?

[Alasdair X]

Suppose someone for some personal reason missed out on regular school education between the ages of 5 and 18. At age 30 he now wants to take a university degree course. Can he sign up at a school or sixth form college to gain the necessary GCSEs and "A" levels for matriculation purposes?

[spuorg...@gowanhill.com]

Possibly not a "school" or "sixth form college" which is really a school for 16-18 year olds, but he certainly can at a Further Education college. Many offer "access" courses to the local university, which may mean he can progress to uni in one year rather than the conventional 2 for A levels.

There were actually graduates sitting Higher English at college with me as they wanted to be teachers, and had been accepted into uni without it, but now needed Higher English to get a teaching job.

Owain

[Roger Hayter]

Universities have special mature student admission arrangements which
may involve no specific qualifications, a university administered exam,
or a universtiy run access course. So it may not be necessary to do a
further education course of any kind.


--

Roger Hayter

[Martin Brown]

Further education colleges will. Even pensioners can enrol often to
pursue a hobby with access to facilities for wood or metal working.

The scenario you describe was one of the areas that the Open University
was intended to address (and did so very well from 1960's up until they
put their fees up to ridiculous levels a few years ago).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[spuorg...@gowanhill.com]

On Saturday, 31 August 2019 09:20:51 UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:
> The scenario you describe was one of the areas that the Open University
> was intended to address (and did so very well from 1960's up until they
> put their fees up to ridiculous levels a few years ago).

OU charge £6,048 for an honours degree over 6 years. Wroks out at £4 a day, 5 days a week - about the same as an expensive coffee.

Ordinary universities in England up to £9,250 per year.

The OU may have been cheaper in the past - and provided some wonderful Sunday morning telly on BBC2 - but it's still pretty good value in comparison.

Owain

[Brian Reay]

On 30/08/2019 18:17, Alasdair X wrote:

> Suppose someone for some personal reason missed out on regular school education between the ages of 5 and 18. At age 30 he now wants to take a university degree course. Can he sign up at a school or sixth form college to gain the necessary GCSEs and "A" levels for matriculation purposes?
>

Interesting question.

When I was training to teach in 2003, I am sure there was woman of
perhaps 30-40 who was allowed to study and (I assume) take some A
levels. She didn't study my subject so I didn't take much notice of the
details of how it was handled.

However, since then - in other schools reported in the media- there have
been cases of pupils allegedly claiming to be significantly younger than
they are. These cases have causes 'concerns'.

My advice would be to ask the Head at the school in question. He/she may
require the candidate to under go a background check.

That aside, there are alternatives. FE colleges certainly offer A levels
and some offer GCSEs, albeit probably only the core ones, which as it
happens tend to be the ones required by Unis etc.

[Sara Merriman]

In article <795b1916-4f3c-4380...@googlegroups.com>,

I'm I did some courses with the OU 10 or so years ago and I thought
they were superb. The courses are presented well and the support is
excellent.