COWA access course a total joke!!

[emma_shawcross]

Just wanted to post on here how I found it and what my reasons are for leaving, to help anyone who is thinking about the course.

They seemed to have accepted anyone on the course meaning that the ability range was massive. Personally I found that my GCSE's just didnt cut it. There are people struggling to keep up, some are ok and others moaning its too slow. I thought the whole idea was everyone on the course was there because, for whatever reason, they didn't do Alevels e.t.c? So that annoyed me.

The next one was the sheer amount of people there are on it. It was the biggest intake this year ever and after talking to leacturers, it's become clear why. Aparrently the college is skint, they have lost alot of staff, the facilities are poor and there are alot of temps. They have taken on so many students apparently, because they use the A2M course as abit of a cash cow. But the problem is it makes the end result meaningless, as all these people have the same as you do so it makes the tough route to medicine alittle harder.

The staff are nice, don't get me wrong. Some of the lectures have been very good and were a real pleasure to attend. However, I found the first week all they talked about was what they were not covering and how touch it is going to be lol.

The college is old and depressing, honestly it needs blowing up and rebuilding shame they didnt get the go ahead for the new college. The labs have what you need don't get me wrong, but it is very old and feels very much like school. The support network put in place by the college is also rubbish. It seems that it is very hit and miss depending on which tutor you get and how much they like you. Lots of people have commented on this, which really lets it down. As the course moves so quick, if you fall behind, catching up is hard work and it's a shame the is not the personal support there.

I was supposed to get funding for help with my childcare, which they declined due to, suprise suprise lack of money, so 2 weeks in I got a nursery bill handed to me from the college nursery for £400 and told to pay up in 5 working days. So that really didn't help me settle, when I spoke to the funding people, I just got told I should have applied earlier (which I did, it just took months to get a date for an interview from the date of my application).

So overall, I think it was a total joke. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I am so annoyed at being told to 'shut up and put up' by the staff, I needed to vent. Unfortunatly this is my local college, so have changed to another course, which is even worst. In the 4 weeks I have been at Cowa now I have had 4 major timetable changes, missed 2 weeks of Maths as they tried to fit 50 people in a room for 2 hours with only 30 chairs (lack of staff apparently), and tried to cope in Physics where the poor temp lecturer is trying to teach access and Alevel (2 very different sylibus') students different things at the same time.

But all this aside we are still expected to get distintions, they like to use the phase 'self directed learning' alot.

It will be interesting to hear from anyone who has been or is currently on the access courses and see how they are getting on.

[Woolpack]

OK I'll do a bit of sticking up for poor old COWA. I did the course last year so can't comment on this year's big intake, nor the current situation with temps. It was no secret that the college was in financial difficulty last year, and we did have some problems with staffing, our Maths was also shambolic for a while during a change of teacher.

And I agree that the college is old and depressing, but so what? The facilities might not be state of the art but they are good enough. The teaching may be patchy at times but it is also good enough (and sometimes excellent). The range of abilities going in is vast, but that is surely to be expected given the nature of the course - it is a route in for non-traditional applicants. Last year that included nurses, physios, fresh graduates with a first class degree in a non-science subject, accountants, lorry drivers, 19 year olds with foreign qualifications, marines and musicians and dancers and jockeys and actuaries and general bums and wasters. Of course some people are going to have to work harder for their distinctions, just like some people are going to have to work harder to get through medical school.

It wasn't an easy course, and that is how it should be if the qualification is to be valued by admissions departments. Of last year's intake of about 80 I would say about 40 hung in there to sit the final exams in June. Of those 40 maybe 35 got the grades, and of those 35 probably 30 got a place. (Figures are best guess only). And I reckon that those 30 people now in their first or second week of medical school are very grateful to COWA for giving them a route in. I certainly am.

Sorry that it didn't work out for you but it sounds like it has more to do with challenging personal circumstances than the shortcomings of the course. I would encourage anyone thinking of applying to COWA to do so, and anyone currently on the course to stick with it, even if it seems like a mess at the moment. The academic year is only a month old after all. Get your heads down and good luck.

[469er]

Sorry that it didn't work out for you but it sounds like it has more to do with challenging personal circumstances than the shortcomings of the course.

Clearly there are a number of different issues here.

I did access to medicine (not at COWA) alongside having small children, including one who was sufficiently small to be in the college nursery. The nursery playground was alongside the biology classroom, and I have a particularly vivid memory of listening to my one-year-old child crying piteously after having fallen over, while I was in the middle of a biology exam. Combining study of this intensity with family life is not easy, least of all financially. I do not think COWA can be blamed for the low reserves of the Access to Learning Fund, which, whatever one may think of it as a piece of government policy, is the only source of childcare funding while studying at this level. I paid nursery fees out of my own pocket, and worked part-time to be able to do so. Access to Medicine may be a golden ticket for those who get through, but its opportunities are not a right.

That said, I think it's rather unfair to dismiss as 'challenging personal circumstances' the teaching arrangements which seem to be in place, assuming that what has been said is a fair representation. Clearly, it is completely unacceptable to be teaching students simultaneously who are following two different syllabuses, or to have taken on so many students that not everyone can sit down. 'Self-directed learning' is all very well, and is an important part of preparation for medical school, but charging high fees for offering students the privilege of sitting exams for which they have not been adequately prepared is just wrong.

In addition, an important component of widening access to higher education generally (not just to medicine) is acknowledging that returners to learning often have complex reasons for not having fulfilled their potential the first time round, rather than just subject-specific gaps in their education (e.g. confidence, learning blocks, inability to organise, undiagnosed dyslexia etc, etc, etc). This is why pastoral and academic support is so vital, and again this is difficult to achieve when the number of students far exceeds that which can be accommodated successfully.

People regularly ask in this forum why the progression stastitics from COWA are so low, and past students often cite the challenging nature of access. However, at Sussex Downs, where the course is similar curriculum-wise, the progression rate has been almost 100% since the course's inception. The range of previous occupations and education is just as wide (although you would be hard pressed to get in without GCSEs), but the intake much smaller, and the level of support correspondingly higher, both of students by staff, and of students by each other. It is all very well to make the A2M opportunity as widely available to all-comers as possible, but when a college is not able to follow up on that opportunity by teaching and supporting to an adequate standard, and when there are question marks as to the realistic ability of all those attending to benefit from the opportunity, there surely arises a whiff of exploitation.

One should not rely solely on anonymous comments made on an internet forum, but I must say I would be concerned if I were contemplating investing a year of my life and hard-earned cash at COWA.

[Mamba]

Your describing Access To Medicine in general. Its not a gurantee in medicine, it brings people from all walks of life and ability into one class. The funding isnt huge for access to medicine and its also a very new scheme, the first ever A2M doctors only qualified in 2007.

Access to medicine is about endurance and time managment, its about determination and foresight. Would someone that walks away at the first hurdle make it the whole 6 years ? University isnt perfect, medicine itself is rocky ground, with so many variations in teaching method and a huge variation in ability with qualified doctors. Some are qualifying with no anatomy knowlege, some with no inter-personal skills.

This is life, and life isnt perfect. Medicine is life but under stressfull and intense surroundings, I truly accept that medicine isnt a career, a degree or a job, its a life ! and it begins at access.

Im sad to hear that you didnt enjoy your experience, though I am yet to find many that did. No one said it would be easy, but then nothing worth having is easy to attain.


Mamba

[469er]

Im sad to hear that you didnt enjoy your experience, though I am yet to find any that did.

Really???? You don't know of anyone who enjoyed access??? I absolutely loved my access year! It was one of the best, happiest and most exciting years of my life - and I have had an interesting life. I'm not saying it wasn't hard work - it was desperate at times - but it was an amazing experience, which changed me as a person and prepared me for medical school in so many ways over and above the academic. I am really rather shocked by this statement, and it makes me wonder all over again what access courses other than the one I attended are really offering.

I would really be interested in what other previous and current access students have to say on this topic.

[NickJM08]

This seems like a disappointing statement to me. I'm applying for entry to A2M courses next year as my last hope of getting into medicine without having to do 2 degrees.

[Should Do Better]

I'm on the Access to Medicine course at the COWA. It's a good course. The lecturers do not have time to cover all the A-level syllabus for each subject in one year, so the teaching is, understandably, not condusive to a sound understanding of certain topics without prior reading.

The college is a bit hard up financially, but there is a good learning infrastructure in place, with a well stocked library and online access to lecture notes and past papers. I encourage anyone thinking of applying to this course to have a look over an A-level phys, chem and bio syllabus and if you think you could enjoy learning two thirds of it you'll enjoy this course. Each main topic is consolidated with a practical session as well.

So for £700 (£400 including the £300 accomodation grant for those renting in KL) it's good value for money. I, however, do not have children and have nothing but respect for parents on this course. It must be very difficult indeed.

Mamba, as you didn't enjoy your access course I hope med school has been a more enjoyable experience.

[Mamba]

I LOVE MED SCHOOL..... however...

when a recent post complained about COWA, I wanted to put across the opinion that it is hard, it sometimes isnt fun... its a means to a qualification to apply for medicine, it isnt a social event. Im happy to hear that some of you enjoyed A2M (sickos lol ) but I genuinly found that most students saw it as an obstacle, a tedious and sometimes all consuming year. I OWE EVERYTHING to my A2M but I certainly didnt "enjoy it". I had and made friends there that I still keep in close contact with, I live with one of them.

I just dont want someone to go into it and start to think that something is wrong with them for not enjoying it.

A2M is 9-5, 5 days a week of learning and reasonably hard work. I have no regrets and as I said, I loved my course, I owe it everything and I sing and shout about A2M whenever I can....

Enjoyment in general... . I want to be a doctor.. I am 29 years old. I dont want to be in a classroom, or a refectory or a science lab.. or as in A2M, a college. I want to be in a hospital. Dont get me wrong, I have a great time, I even enjoy the subjects, dissection and ward placments are great and exciting too. I love uni and I often think how sad I would be if i was to leave or fail. However, this is all a means to an end.. I want to help patients.

I can see that some of you will tear this apart quoting my every contradiction, well if you have the time spare go ahead. I just want to convey to the people out there that arent enjoying calculus, are bored of meiosis, have had enough of waveform physics and cant be bothered to write that essay on teen abortions.... Just finish it, stick with it, the year will be over with soon enough. Get into Uni and before you know it you will be on a ward answering a beeper.

Also i did mean to say MANY not ANY.

Also: Nick, access to medicine has its faults, but it is an excellent means of entry to medical school. The people that stick at it usually make it. The odds are good. It is in its infancy, which just means that as a student its going to be a little tougher that it will be in the future, teething problems and perfecting the course is still taking place.

[eli]

. The funding isnt huge for access to medicine and its also a very new scheme, the first ever A2M doctors only qualified in 2007.

The first COWA A2M doctors qualified waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy before then - like 2000 or 2001.

[AR1972]

The first COWA A2M doctors qualified waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy before then - like 2000 or 2001.

Indeed, via Leicester, on or around 1998/99.