How I gained direct admission at a UK university as an international student without A-Level
Most of us international students who aspire to study abroad, tend to face difficulties applying to universities abroad due to our secondary education qualification that is somewhat different than our target country. Typically we fall into the trap of having no internationally-recognised qualifications such as A-Level or IB. Personally, I went to a normal high school that applies Indonesia’s national curriculum, which means I graduated with the now-abolished National Examination Certificate (Ijazah UN), which automatically reduced my choice of universities for direct entry.
Back in 2017, when I applied to study in the UK, I somehow managed to dodge this problem. How? Well, there are some solutions to this. Firstly, international students without A-Level or its equivalent are usually required to enroll in a Foundation program as a “standardisation” of education. Basically, you undergo a 1 year of Foundation programme before enrolling in your first year of an undergraduate degree. This is the most common alternative that universities would offer you with. The issue with this, in my honest opinion, is that a year of foundation programme tends to be expensive, it adds another year to your study which does not add significant educational value.
The other solution is what I went for. The simple answer to this is that there are a small number of UK universities that accept non-A-Level qualification or their equivalent. For those of you (Indonesians) graduating high school from 2020 onwards, after the UN system is abolished (yay you), you can apply to most of these universities with your senior high school report (Rapor SMA). I have done quite some research and summarise the list of such universities in this article.
Additionally, these universities also offer Top-Up Programmes where you can apply as a third-year undergraduate student (or if you hold a diploma — check with the university website for more details) for a one-year “top-up” degree, which is equivalent to the final year of undergraduate study in the UK! This is such a great way to gain international exposure and reap the benefits of studying abroad without having to spend triple or even quadruple the amount of money compared to if you do a full 3 to 4 years undergraduate degree.
1. The University of the West of England
2021 UK University Ranking: #21
Top Courses & UK Ranking: Education & Teaching (#2), Film Production & Photography (#4), Mathematics (#8)
Useful links: Entry requirement (Indonesian), email, website
Commonly referred to as “UWE Bristol”, this university puts an emphasis on “solving future global challenges through outstanding learning, world-leading research and a culture of enterprise”. This can be seen from their Strategy 2030 initiative which “will be a market disrupter, leading future trends and approaches to solve future challenges, create opportunities and shape our communities across the region and beyond,” said the Vice-Chancellor.
As the name suggests, it is located in Bristol, one of UK’s most beautiful cities (but quite pricey as some said — I personally have never been to Bristol but my sister has and she shared the same opinion). According to this source, they have built close links with top employers, the likes of Airbus, HP, Rolls-Royce, BBC, and more. Their top programs seem to reflect the same sentiment too (Film Production and Photography ranked #4 in the UK, Mechanical Engineering ranked #13)
2. Coventry University (a.k.a my current uni)
2021 UK University Ranking: #26
Top Courses & UK Ranking: Hospitality, Event Management and Tourism (#3), Mechanical Engineering (#3), Film Production and Photography (#4), Nursing and Midwifery (#4) Architecture (#5)
Useful links: Entry requirement (Southeast Asia), email, website, rankings
According to Times Higher Education, Coventry University “is recognised internationally for its expertise in health, peacebuilding and agroecology, and for the world-leading calibre of its engineering and design graduates — particularly in the automotive field.”. Their aims lie in transforming the futures of young people through excellence, innovation and opportunity.
Indeed, this is my current university! I personally think there is a lot of truth in the provision of opportunities. The university certainly works hard to present and expose their students to experiences such as international exchange programme (study abroad for a year between the 2nd and final year), placement programme support (work for a year in the UK or abroad in between the 2nd and final year), international trips (fully or partially funded by the Centre for Global Engagement), Career events (they even invited Maisie Williams a.k.a Arya Stark to share about her journey and her new app!), and more.
The university itself is quite vibrant with international students (a professor mentioned that 80% of the students at Cov are international!). Though I should say, the chance of encountering and making friends with international students truly depends on your choice of course — for instance, in my Economics classes, there are very little non-UK/EU students (I can literally count it by hand) whereas a Business and Management class might be dominated by international students. There are also Korea Centre and Confucius Institute which promote both countries’ culture, language, and research which I think really shows the university’s openness and inclusivity towards the international audience.
For a more detailed review, I have created a few YouTube videos about my take on Coventry which you can find here.
3. Northumbria University
2021 UK University Ranking: #27
Top Courses & UK Ranking: (there are not much info on the website but these are some famous courses: Design (#13), Law (#20), Physics (#26)
Useful links: Entry requirement (Indonesian), website
Located in Newcastle-upon-tyne, Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. Quite similar to UWE Bristol (imho), they have something called Vision 2025, an initiative geared towards research, business, as well as increasing global competitiveness.
It has recently been crowned as one of the top-rated UK young universities (80th worldwide by Times Higher Education *among the so-called young university). Interestingly, Northumbria also formed partnership arrangements with some Southeast Asian countries including our beloved Indonesia, the Northumbria-BINUS Design School in Jakarta, as well as Kaplan to offer degrees in Singapore.
4. Cardiff Metropolitan University
2021 UK University Ranking: #72
Top Courses & UK Ranking: not much information yet, but Sports studies is highly raved, #33 nationwide
Top-Up Programme: Yes
Useful links: Entry requirement (Indonesian), website
Prifysgol Metropolitan Caerdydd in Welsh (yep this uni is located in Wales, and Wales have their own language but English is still the main language. If you’re not familiar with the UK, Wales is like a separate “state” or shall we call it “kingdom” that makes up the UK — alongside England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland).
Cardiff Met is known for its sports! They have a standalone School of Sport & Health Sciences — not many UK universities have this, and apparently they have invested quite a sum on sports overall. Students also claim them as very hands-on with really approachable and friendly lecturers! Also, it’s often mistaken with Cardiff University — but sources say if you prefer more of a community feel, Cardiff Met is the one.
They are definitely one of the new and growing universities in the UK (they leapt 33 places in the Guardian’s League Table this year!)— it was even acknowledged as the Welsh University of the Year 2021 due to its strong teaching quality and high score for student satisfaction.
5. University of Hertfordshire
2021 UK University Ranking: #103
Top Courses & UK Ranking: not much information but ranks #15 for Economics
Top-Up Programme: Yes
Useful links: Entry requirement (Indonesian), website
Although Herts is quite far apart in terms of ranking as compared to the other universities, I should flag that this uni is considerably new as it was a Polytechnic (Hatfield Polytechnic) up until 1999. Not much information in terms of student review (little reviews, so the sentiment is quite skewed) and not much media coverage as well but however they do offer study abroad programs and they achieved the top gold ranking in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2018.
Located pretty close to London (Hatfield, 25mins train ride from London), Herts is also known for their pretty modern building as well as great facilities such as a full-scale replica Crown Court, multi-million-pound Science building, in-house flight simulators, and £38m entertainment venue (if that’s what you are looking for).
- Rankings are based on The Guardian’s League Table
- For more student-based reviews, I recommend checking out whatuni.com and thestudentroom.co.uk, or other online forums such as Reddit (typically more honest/blunt than the other sites)
