Hi Bryan

Mrs. Newton here - hubby thought I may be able to help.

I taught in a local further education college for years and years!!!! I think the course IanC was talking about is an Access course. This course is designed for adults students (usually over 21 or 25) who for some reason or another do not have formal 'school' qualifications (A' levels or GCSE's). Usually they are a one year full time course or two year part time course. There are varying courses on offer and they also vary from one college to the next so you will have to look them up to find one that will fit your requirements. If you have a particular problem with grammar then you should perhaps think of doing an adult literacy course before you embark on the Access course. It's not as bad as it sounds and usually free! on the Access course you accumulate 'points' for each unit you take and universities will expect you to get a minimum number of points in order to gain entry. There is also, usually, a computing, maths and study skills component. It is great preparation for university and I would strongly recommend this course if you do not have the other qualifications.

I did an Access course myself many many years ago and landed up teaching - which I still do from time to time as I am semi retired. I didn't retire too long ago (only last year) so am still fairly up-to-date. I then taught on the Access course myself for many years.

If I can be of any help to you please do not hesitate to get in touch and I will answer as many of your questions that I can. I will even look into colleges that may offer this type of course if you can give me a broad location of where you may want to study and maybe help you in that aspect.

All the very best - GO FOR IT!!!!!!

For what it’s worth Bryan, I started my Uni studies with the OU in prison. During the final year of my sentence I was on day release to a ‘brick’ Uni, so obviously they knew and were quite happy with it. On release I carried on at the same Uni to get my first degree. That was in Sociology. I can honestly say I’ve never had a problem with Universities and any problems have arisen when it came to employment. I then did a Masters in Criminology and tried the professions with zero results. The Criminology degree did carry a large element of criminal law, but it was the CRB checks that everyone wanted that stopped any further progression.

Your grammar will let you down for entry, unless you’re diagnosed dyslexic or there is some other medical reason. Your local college will do the 18 month preparation for Uni entry, (I’ve forgotten the name of the course), which should bring you up to scratch. If you’re a mature student, over 21, you don’t need formal qualifications. You’ll make loads of friends of your own age group; every Uni has its own mature student’s association and somewhere along the way your education will come in handy, if not when you’ve finished, then later. Just don’t expect education to provide you with an immediate job on completion – the CRB and degree’s don’t always see eye to eye! Having said that, I’ve yet to meet someone who says their degree was a waste of time and they’d rather not have done one.

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With all due respect

Hi Bonbon - I suspect that if you wanted to do the LPC (Legal Practice Course) or the Bar entrance exam it might have been an issue, but just to do an LLB I can't see why a CRB would be required.

On the whole Universities are pretty good with people with convictions.

Interestingly, if you get past the LPC (i.e. get regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is of course a big "if" in itself), individual solicitors are only entitled to know about spent convictions (if they even ask about them at all) as it is only the professional body (not individual employers) that are exempt from the ROA within the legal profession!

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Bryan,

It's worth taking a look at the page we have on the Information Hub on the main site which links to a useful document on University Admissions. See www.unlock.org.uk/xoffenders.aspx?sid=178#university/

I wish I could remember what the situation was when I applied to University. I didn't have convictions at the time. When I did (during my 2nd year) they were again fine with it, but made it clear it would be difficult for me to practice. When I applied to do my Masters, my convictions were still unspent, so I had to disclose them (I therefore can't remember whey they just asked for unspent or for all - again, it didn't really matter to them. They were fine with them. That tends to be what you find with Universities.

It's interesting that on the above page, the document we link to mentions law in section 5.1. Certainly, courses that have placements (often Health and Social care, etc), and those which result in Admission to a profession (as it states in the document, although I can't think of a course that is like this), then clearly they'd be able to ask for spent convictions.

However, from my understanding of a law course, I would think that the questions should only relate to unspent convictions, because they tend not to involve placements, and an LLB doesn't give you admission into the legal profession - it simply exempts you from one element of the process - you would still have to go through the process of disclosing all convictions).

Have you actually asked any possible Uni's what their questions are? That would be the first thing I'd be doing I think. I'd be interested to know the response.

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