Uni or a Gap Year for 2020-21?

Starting University this Autumn? Or thinking of taking a Gap Year?

It may be a very different experience from usual for new students. After a final school year cut short, with no exams, no proms, no leavers’ assemblies and an A level results day that will surely lack the usual emotional highs and lows, the list of diminished milestones looks set to continue.

Many universities are already planning for an online start to the academic year and students face the prospect of beginning their university life from their parental homes. There’ll be no mad dash to Ikea for pots and pans and pizza slicers and the UK motorways will be spared the caravan of family cars bursting at the seams with books, bedlinen and fold away clothes lines, delivering nervous students to their Halls ready for the start of Fresher’s Week.

With Universities demanding full fees regardless of how lectures and seminars will be delivered, it is no wonder that many students are weighing up whether to head to university at all this Autumn.

So, what to do?

The continued restrictions on travel will almost certainly limit the number of overseas students arriving for the start of the new year, so UK students may have a better than ever chance of securing a place at a good university.

However, for others, they may be feeling underprepared for undergraduate study after such a lengthy disruption to their education, in some cases having not completed their entire A level syllabus.

Teacher Assessed A level Results

These will bring a mixed bag of emotions, relief for those awarded the grades they need for their next steps, and disappointment for others, some perhaps kicking themselves for not working harder for their mocks and feeling cheated of the chance to cram in the weeks before their exams to boost their grades and others feeling they weren’t awarded the grades they deserved.

A Level Autumn Exams

The government has promised an opportunity to ‘re-sit’ the A Level exams in the Autumn, but with little time from A level results day to study and prepare, is it a better plan to take a Gap year and sit the exams next Summer and reclaim some of those rights of passage?

Universities are being urged to clarify their Autumn teaching plans, so that students can make an informed decision on which path to follow.

With the anticipated increase in students choosing to take a year out, Justin Craig Education has a new programme of online courses and One-to-One tuition designed to support students who choose to ‘re-sit’ their A levels in 2021.

For further information and individual requirements, do call our Course Advisors on 01727 744340 or email us.